Man Charged With Strangling Paola Partner To Death In Her Bedroom Is Pleading Insanity
Michael Emmanuel is led to court to answer for the murder of his partner. Photo: NET
Michael Emmanuel, the man charged with murdering her partner Lourdes Agius inside her Paola bedroom last September, is pleading insanity.
Emmanuel’s plea has seen him temporarily transferred from prison to Mount Carmel and the compilation of evidence against him suspended. A panel of psychiatrists will examine his mental state and present the court with a report on his mental health at the time of the murder, and the Attorney General will have a 30 day time window to contest the findings.
Should the AG contest it, his decision will be decided by a panel of jurors, and should he accept it, Emmanuel will be cleared on grounds of insanity and kept at Mount Carmel.
Back in September, Emmanuel, a 28-year-old Ivorian, was charged with strangling his partner, 35-year-old Maltese national and mother of seven Lourdes Agius, in their bedroom.
The couple were living in Agius’ mother’s Paola house at the time.
The 25-year-old man and the victim’s two-month-old baby. Photo: TVM
An autopsy ruled that Agius had suffocated to death, that she had been hit twice in the head, and that she had bruises all over her body, especially in the neck area. She also had a cut in her mouth, which forensic experts said most probably occurred while she was being strangled.
According to Emmanuel, he had intercourse with Agius, went to sleep and woke up to find her dead. He went to the Paola police station at 7am the next morning and told officers that he had tried to wake up his partner, but that she wasn’t moving.
However, police suspected that Emmanuel had actually killed her himself, particularly since she had filed a domestic violence report just a few days earlier. Emmanuel allegedly hit both Lourdes and her mother, using a chair to strike the mother on her back. Both women were taken to Mater Dei, where they were confirmed to have slight scratches.
The day after the fight, Lourdes and her brother forced Emmanuel out of the house, where he reportedly ended up sleeping on the street. The police tried to call Aġenzija Appoġġ to find somewhere for him to sleep but the agency did not answer the phone.
Emmanuel returned home and, the next day, allegedly killed Lourdes.
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