Bona murder | Accused had 'no other option' but to confront il-Bona

One of the lawyers defending Allan Galea has told the jury trying his client that the circumstances and events leading to the death of Anthony Borg, known as il-Bona, meant that the incident could not have been avoided by the accused.

Galea faces a possible life sentence if found guilty of the wilful homicide of Borg, in Marsaxlokk, in 2010.

MORE Reports from the Anthony Borg murder jury

Continuing his closing address to the jury from yesterday evening, Giglio said the confrontation between Anthony Borg and the man who eventually ended his life had been forced on the accused, who is claiming self-defence after he stabbed Borg in the heart...ostensibly after Borg had tossed aside the malfunctioning handgun from which he had just fired two or three shots.

The defence is positing that Borg had intended to shoot Galea because the former had felt humiliated when the "fastidiously clean" accused had touched a choker he had been wearing, some three weeks before. Much had been made by the defence of Borg's ego - Borg had a tattoo reading "Power" down one forearm and had enjoyed being known as "Power, said Galea's lawyers. “Il-Bona Power...do you think he will let [an affront to his authority] slide? Forget it!” said Giglio, emphatically.

He implored the jury to look at the dynamics of the case and the surrounding circumstances.

The accused “had the misfortune of, three weeks prior, having annoyed Borg,” a local hardman and loan shark. “You must understand, this man had to react the way he reacted.”

“You may be thinking ‘but he left home armed with the knife,’” said Giglio, before once again inviting the jurors to put themselves in the position of the accused. “The man had just arrived home from work when he received a 51 second phone call, in which Borg had demanded Galea come down to meet him. Galea had to make a decision.”

Galea had four options, said the lawyer.  The first, that of ignoring Borg, was impossible -he had received 6 phone calls in the space of 10 minutes and Borg was not simply going away. “The first four were overheard by Pawlu x-Xu in the club", said the lawyer. Paul Borg ix-Xu had been sufficiently concerned by what he had heard that he closed the bar, Giglio pointed out.

 The second option was to stay at home and do nothing. “Think about it, but do nothing and stay at home with your wife and child. This man doesn’t know me, but he somehow got my phone number...he could have my address soon.”

Giglio pointed out that Amanda Grech, the accused’s girlfriend, had understood that Borg was coming for them and Paul Borg ix-Xu had testified that he had closed the club because he had started to worry that a murder was about to take place. “Whose aggression did he hear?” asked Giglio.

“Option Three: call the police. Call the police, on il-Bona!” scoffed the lawyer, highlighting that this course of action would only serve to increase the animosity the deceased had towards the accused. “Even reporting a noisy neighbour to the police is not a first option, let alone il-Bona!”.

“Which leaves me with option four,” said the lawyer. “I go and nip the situation in the bud, but I had better take something to defend myself, in case I find myself surrounded.”

“Would a person who had planned to stab someone, then go to the police station? He didn’t resist the police. He didn’t try to go home,” said the lawyer. “Common sense” would raise the question of why he had reacted in this way when met with the police if he had gone with the intention of fighting.

He pointed out that Inspector Pullicino’s account  of being told by Galea that he had threatened threat to “tear up and eat” (“inqattghak u nieklok”) the victim was not borne out by the accused’s statements. “Perceptions, as Pullicino himself had said, vary.”
He read out the memo, which reported the accused as having said “jien mhux tifel zgħir, jien nieklok.”  There was no mention of “tearing up.” “That was the inspector’s perception.”

He argued that the accused had, of his own volition, invited the police to “use the recordings” of the phone call between him and the deceased. In his naievety, said Giglio, the accused had expected the call to have been recorded somehow and made a last ditch attempt to prove that he had been threatened.

Of the observation, by Inspector Pullicino, that he Galea had changed his version after spending time speaking to a lawyer, he pointed out that the right to legal assistance during interrogation “was not there to be used against the accused.” 

The trial resumed in the afternoon, albeit behind closed doors.