‘He kept on telling me that he loved his parents’ – witness recalls finding stabbing victim

He was in a bad state

A witness recalled in court how the victim of a stabbing in Birkirkara, who later died, whispered the nickname of the accused to him.

Roderick Grech, 26, known as ‘Ic-Cina’, was found unconscious in Triq Tumas Fenech in Birkirkara during the early hours of 29 March, 2017. He died following stab wounds to the chest. Etienne Bartolo, better known as

‘Il-Vojt’ has pleaded not guilty to the charges of homicide, carrying a knife in public, and breaching public peace.

During the initial arraignment, it emerged that the victim was known to the police and had received a suspended sentence for a hold-up in 2012. He was also known to be connected to drugtrafficking.

During the compilation of evidence, the court heard the account of a witness who discovered an injured Mr Grech. “I saw him walking along the street. He looked drunk. Then he fell on the ground and started calling for help.”

Jean Pierre Pace said he recognised the victim when he approached him. Mr Grech, who was lying on the pavement, begun to instruct the witness to call an ambulance. “I then saw two stab wounds on each side of the chest. I blocked them with my hands. He told me that it was ‘Il-Vojt’ who had done it.”

The witness continued: “He started to tell me that he loved his parents.”

Mr Pace said said he hugged the victim and kissed the man on the forehead, in an effort to console him.

He said he had flagged down a car and called for help.

The next witness to take the stand was a man who, after giving a colleague a lift home, noticed a car facing in the direction of the Birkirkara bypass on Tumas Fenech Street at 1.15am. He said that the internal and external lights of the car were on.

Kristo Sanjic said he then saw the previous witness, Mr Pace, near the victim. He said that he asked if the men needed help, and the other witness signalled for assistance.

“I only noticed there was blood when I was right near them,” Mr Sanjic said. The witness said he plugged the wound on the victim’s upper left arm until the ambulance arrived.

A third witness, who is a police officer based at the depot and was off-duty at the time of the incident, is a resident in a property near where the incident took place.

PC Moira Cortis told the court that she had initially heard a car horn and shouting from her residence on Tumas Fenech street in Birkirkara at 1.10 am on 29 March, 2017.

She then saw a man walking towards the church, calling for help while holding his chest. The witness said she called the police station and headquarters, which informed her that she had been the first caller.

She then saw the man walk up towards the by-pass. “He was in a bad state,” she said about the victim. The man then disappeared inside an apartment block, only to come out again after a few minutes. PC Cortis also confirmed that a person had stopped to help the victim.

Gejtu Bonnici, who lives in the apartment block which the victim had entered, told the court that he had been alerted by the flashing lights from police cars outside his apartment. When investigators knocked at his second floor flat, he found blood splattered on his door. More blood stains were visible along the stairway all the way down to the common entrance.

Asked by the prosecution whether anyone had knocked at his door earlier that night, the witness replied in the negative.

Police Inspectors Silvio Valletta and Kurt Zahra are leading the prosecution. Lawyer Franco Debono and Yanika Vidal appeared for Grech’s family.