Attard witnessed double murder, then covered bodies with manure

The witness who owned the Birzebbugia field where Mario Camilleri ‘l-Imniehru’ and his son Mario Camilleri were buried, claimed that accused Jason Galea planned to kill a third person, but refrained from the final murder when the target ‘shot at him’.

Alfredo Attard was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Jason and George Galea, accused of the murder of the Camilleris, after he was granted a deferred prosecution that allowed him to testify without caution that what he says could be used against him.

He recounted that Galea had approached him on his way to the farm, informing him of the impending murder. “He said, ‘it has to be done today. It will be done today. I realised that he was talking about the plans made two weeks earlier to bury three corpses at my field, for which I would receive €5,000. Half an hour later, I realised that there was already a corpse in the hole dug in my field – it was Mario Camilleri senior and he had two gunshots in his neck,” Attard said.

He said that moments later, Emanuel Farrugia – known as ‘id-Deffien’ (the gravedigger) but also known by the nickname ‘l-Iskrun’ – arrived at the field with Mario Camilleri junior.

Attard said he told him to leave, but shortly after Jason Galea himself accompanied the youth to the field. “He kept him near the door of the room, and from behind a curtain George Galea shot at him twice, but missed. Then they started hitting him with everything they found – tiles and stones. I was a couple of metres away from them, under a carob tree, and heard Mario Jnr tell Jason to stop hitting him and leave him alone. When he was dead they put the body over that of his father, and I covered them with six inches of manure.”

Attard said that after the murder, Galea returned to the field, and asked him to wash his van. “I told him no, and told him to leave the field. He replied that he had gone to get the third person but failed to do so when she was about to shoot him – he did not tell me who it was,” Attard said.

Attard said the firearms, cartridges and a watch belonging to Mario Camilleri Jnr had been given to him by Jason Galea, who instructed him to hide them. “I hid them in the stable where I keep sheep, and later gave them to the police.”

Matthew Zahra murder

Inspector Chris Pullicino asked Attard to recall what had happened a year earlier with respect to the murder of Valletta taxi driver Matthew Zahra, for which Jason Galea and Ronald Urry face separate murder charges.

“On 14 August 2012, Jason offered me €2,000 to get rid of the body of Matthew Zahra. We used to meet at the Birzebbugia Labour club. From the money he owed me, I only got €400.  At around 6:30am he arrived at my field with Renald (Ronald Urry), who hid under a fig tree next to the gate. Later, Jason arrived with Matthew Zahra in a white Skoda, and Renald shot him inside the car, then drove to the hole and dumped the body.”

Before Attard covered Zahra’s body, Galea and Urry rifled through his pockets where they found a gold choker, which Galea took.

“As time passed, I asked Galea for the money but did not see another cent. He insisted that I should exhume the body and burn the remains, which I refused to do. However people started telling me that the accused was entering my field when I was not there. So I dug up Zahra’s body and burnt the remains, but kept some bones – so in time the case could be revealed. I passed the bones to the police and threw the ashes over the field.”

Cross-examined by defence counsel Joe Giglio, Attard said he had known Jason Galea for over a year at the Birzebbugia Labour club.

Attard, who has been granted witness protection under deferred prosecution, told the court he never spoke to a lawyer and had not been summoned to testify in the case before last week.

Giglio expressed surprise at the reason Attard had been granted deferred prosecution, when his evidence matched that given by Jason Galea himself.

The other defence lawyer, Gianella de Marco also cross-examined Attard – he told the court that George Galea was behind a curtain, so he did not see at who he was shooting. But he reiterated that Jason Galea was holding Mario Camilleri jnr by the door in front of the curtain: “So the two shots I heard were aimed at the youth,” Attard said.

Camilleri burial

Attard said he entered into a second agreement with Jason Galea, even though he had still not been paid for the first burial. He also confirmed that he used to live and sleep on the farm where he had hidden the bodies.

“One evening I returned to the farm after having a couple of beers at the Labour club and found my field swarming with police. They kept me off the field but when I told them I was the owner they escorted me inside. I knew I was in trouble because I saw them digging up the bodies of the two Camilleris.”

Attard was then arrested three times and each time detained for 48 hours. “At my last arrest, a lawyer turned up at my cell and told me to testify so Jason and George Galea would be imprisoned. I do not remember who the lawyer was but I never asked for a lawyer.”

Inspector Pullicino objected to the defence’s questions. “He is being questioned about the arrest, not about his involvement in the case. The lawyer who turned up at the lock-up was the legal aid lawyer on duty,” the inspector said.

The court did not uphold the prosecution’s objection and instructed Attard to continue answering Gianella de Marco’s questions.

“I did not know of any legal amendments, or any protection programme. But after the lawyer came to my cell and told me to testify so the two are jailed, I decided that if they don’t prosecute me I would testify,” Attard said.