Bona murder: Accused’s girlfriend details threatening calls before murder

The girlfriend of the man on trial for the 2010 murder of Antoine Borg has told a jury that she had only found out that Borg had died after receiving a phone call from her brother.

Allan Galea’s long-term girlfriend and mother of his seven-year-old daughter, Amanda Grech testified this morning.

Galea, a hawker, is accused of the wilful homicide of Antoine Borg, known as il-Bona, at Marsaxlokk.

Borg died in February 2010 after being stabbed three times in the Marsaxlokk square following an argument with the accused. Gunshots had been heard before the stabbing.

This morning Grech testified how she had followed her normal Sunday routine on the day of the murder.

“We went to set up the market stall early on Sunday...at around 0930,” said the woman. “That day, Borg’s brother, Frans passed us on the way to the square.” Both men nodded in greeting, she said.  The witness explained that, after a time, Galea had left to set up a football match at the Marsaxlokk football club and she had walked home to feed her daughter. Galea returned about an hour afterwards, she said. They had plans to go out for a meal in the evening, said the witness, when the phone calls started.

She had been in the kitchen with their child when Galea’s phone started to ring.  She had picked it up as he was outside in the yard at the time, she said. The caller identified himself as “Twanny” and asked to speak to Allan. “I didn’t know who he was at the time,” said the witness, but he was “speaking in a loud voice.” She handed the phone to Allan and went upstairs to bathe their child.

From the upstairs bathroom, she said, she had heard Allan’s mobile ring again. When she saw that Galea had not picked up the call, she had gone downstairs to answer the phone.

“Tell that man he has to come here,” said the caller, in what the woman described as an aggressive tone. “Tell him to come down here.”

Shortly afterwards the phone rang again, recalled the witness.  “He told me to ‘tell that pufta to come down here’,” the woman repeated to the court, awkwardly. Grech said that she was “terrified” and couldn’t understand why the caller was so angry.

In the fourth call, the man said “tell him to come down here so we can cut him up [“inqattgħuh”].”
She had dialled 112 in a state of panic, asking the police to go to the PN party club.

“Then I started to worry that he would come to our house, so I dressed the girl and ran with her to my brother’s house.” Such was her state of anxiety, that she had left the house still in her pyjamas, she claimed, “worried that he would turn up behind our door and make a scene.”

 A further two calls had been received, said the woman, but she could not remember exactly when.

“My brother told me that there had been a shooting. My heart just sank.” Asked whether she had gone to see what happened, herself, she said that she had not gone to the square because she had been too scared.

“People had called up my brother and told him that there was a shooting and that Twanny had died,” said the woman, failing to hold back her tears.

Debattista asked the witness about her previous sworn statements. Reading from the statements, the prosecutor alleged that she had not mentioned the threat to “cut him up,” to the police. 

The first time this phrase was mentioned was three months later, said Debattista. However, defence lawyer Giannella De Marco pointed out that the jury had already heard a police officer, who had dealt with the woman’s initial report, testify to having been told that phrase.

Yesterday afternoon, Prancienne Borg, daughter of the victim’s brother Frans, who has known the accused since childhood, recalled that three weeks before the murder she had gone to the PN club with her one year-old son. She had bumped into Borg on her way in and he had told her not to go inside because Galea was there and was being a drunken nuisance. “His girlfriend had told him to stop because he was annoying everyone.” Prancienne Borg said she had left the club with a friend before the fatal incident, however.

It was not the first time that the accused’s boozy behaviour had caused arguments with his partner. The accused “had a tendency to joke around after having a drink or two,” Grech testified this morning.

She had gone home after arguing with the accused because he had been “drunk and was flirting with other women.” Grech had packed some clothes and called his mother to pick them up.

The judge asked the witness whether there had been any other incidents where the accused had been sent to his mother or had been kicked out of the house.  “In the past few years it has been a bit up and down. We have arguments but then I calm down. I want my relationship to be good, for the sake of my daughter. I want to be a good example to her.”

In cross-examination, De Marco asked about Allan’s character under the influence of alcohol. “When he drinks, his character starts to open up,” began Grech. “Does he tease women?” asked De Marco. The witness replied in the affirmative. “Do you get jealous?” asked the lawyer. Grech said she did. “Is that why you sent him to his mother?” “Yes,” came back the reply.

The trial resumes on Monday.

Lawyers Lara Lanfranco and Kristina Debattista from the Attorney General's Office are leading the prosecution, while lawyer Giannella de Marco, Joe Giglio and Steven Tonna Lowell are defence counsel. Lawyers Franco Debono and Matthew Brincat are appearing parte civile for the family of the deceased.

Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi is presiding.