‘Go Away!’ – Marsa Double Murder Victim Was On The Phone With Police When She Was Killed
Content Warning: The following article contains explicit details of a gruesome double murder.
The female victim of a brutal double murder in Marsa was on the phone with a police operator when she was killed, it has now emerged.
The disturbing new detail emerged in court today during the first sitting of the compilation of evidence against 34-year-old Ghanaian plasterer Iddrisu Faisal, who stands charged of murdering 73-year-old Joseph Bartolo and 56-year-old Carmen Abela on the morning of Sunday 15th October.
During his testimony, police inspector Kurt Zahra reportedly detailed not only the explicit condition the Maltese couple was found in at the Marsa stable, but also the moments leading up to their deaths… which were tragically recorded on a phonecall to 112.
Carmen Abela reportedly called the police for assistance, saying she and Bartolo were being attacked by Faisal. Moments later, Inspector Zahra said, the woman could be heard shouting “go away”, before telling the emergency operator that Faisal was beside her.
Zahra went on to say the police could hear shouts and crashing sounds coming from the other line before it went dead, with officers rushing to the scene immediately after.
When he arrived on the scene, Zahra found the wooden door to the Marsa stables broken open, but was unable to fully open it because Carmen’s body was right behind it. Her mobile phone was still in her hand.
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Inspector Zahra then went on to provide even more explicit details, this time of the moment he spotted Joseph Bartolo’s body.
“He appeared to have been struck by such a powerful blow that the shape of his head had been altered,” Zahra said. He went on to describe the murder weapon – a bolt cutter which was almost a metre long.
Beyond the double murder, Faisal also stands charged with a number of other serious offences, including the attempted murder of a Nigerian woman (who he grievously injured) and slightly injuring another Nigerian man. He also resisted arrest and slightly injured a police officer, having to be subdued with a taser after officers from the nearby police’s cavalry section rushed to detain him immediately after the murder.
At one point just before his arrest, Faisal confronted and attacked a Nigerian woman with the same bolt cutter, before being disarmed by her brother at the residence’s main door. This, Inspector Zahra said, had actually been captured on CCTV footage.
Zahra went to say that, according Carmen Abela’s brother, the woman had actually called her family moments before the murder, telling them to “come here because a black man is attacking us.”
Faisal reportedly refused to cooperate with the police throughout the interrogation which followed after he was taken to hospital for observation, with The Independent going on to report that he didn’t even try to establish what language he wanted to communicate in (despite reportedly being able to speak in English).
Prosecutors Kaylie Bonett and Ramon Bonett Sladden are representing the Office of the Attorney General, assisting Police Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Wayne Camilleri. Lawyers Joe Brincat and Julia Micallef Stafrace are defence counsel, while lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Franco Debono are parte civile.
What do you make of these latest horrific details?
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