Woman facing double murder charge 'filmed deteriorating health of victims', court told

A Serbian woman charged with the murder of two elderly British expats had filmed their deteriorating health to protect herself, a court has been told.

42-year-old Dragana Mijalkovic is charged with the wilful homicide of David Grant, 68, and Neville Ayers, 78 and knowingly endangering their health. Mijalkovic is contesting the charges.

Mijalkovic sobbed loudly as she took her seat in magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona's courtroom this morning, but had composed herself by the time her case was called.

Inspector Fabian Fleri took the witness stand today. Fleri explained how on 12 October, the accused had gone to the Qawra police station to tell them that some 20 minutes before, she had called an ambulance to assist an unconscious person in her apartment but this had not yet arrived. Police had found the body of an English man between the wardrobe and the bed. Ayers, who has a partner and child in the UK, was declared dead at the scene. The police has noted abrasions on both his forearms, the inspector said. An autopsy had established the cause of death to be asphyxia.

Initially, the woman had not been a suspect, Fleri explained, but it was later noted that nine months before Ayers' death, another English man, David Grant, had also died there. Grant had been found to have died of pulmonary oedema. After the cause of Ayers' death was established, the police had arrested Mijalkovic on suspicion of murder. When her passport was checked by police, it was found that she had outstayed her permit in Malta by several years, he told the court.

Officers found around €1,700 in cash in the apartment and the accused had given police several versions of how it had got there, he said. €750 had been returned to the woman after it was confirmed as being hers.

Footage of the victims were found on the woman's laptop and tablet, Inspector Fleri said.

A neighbour had told police that he had heard Ayers locked in the apartment complex's communal bathroom on at least one occasion.

Mijalkovic had been interrogated. It was noted that she had known the name and dose of every medication Ayers would take. She would administer his pills, Mijalkovic told officers, despite him having no prescription and her, no medical training.

The woman had told the police that on 28 September, Ayers had been unable to pass faeces in three days, so they had gone to a pharmacy in Kappara and given suppositories, adding that he had refused to take them. He had repeatedly refused to be taken to hospital and so she had eventually filmed him telling her that he didn't want to go to hospital. Some time later, he had become incontinent. She had told police that she had then decided to buy nappies for him. On 12 October, Ayers had spent some two hours in the communal bathroom and Mijalkovic said she had received complaints from other tenants. He had fallen over in the bathroom, the inspector said after which, she had taken him into the kitchen.

Mijalkovic had told police that there had been other incidents when Ayers had fallen over. He had fallen off the bed several times as well as on one occasion in Birkirkara and another time in Hamrun, which she had given as explanations for his forearm injuries. The Hamrun incident had been corroborated by a pharmacist who had treated him, the inspector added.

The police had established that she had won just under €1,000 from a betting shop and that Ayers had “paid for everything, including her rent.”

Serbian authorities told their Maltese counterparts that Mijalkovic had been charged with fraud in 2004.

When, on one occasion, Mijalkovic had left her wallet behind at the Oracle Casino, it had been handed to the police. Inside it, they had found David Grant's credit cards and health insurance cards, inspector Fleri said. The police were waiting for confirmation from the issuing institutions about whether they had been used since Grant's death.

Data extracted from the woman's tabled and smartphone had showed pictures of Grant and Ayers, together with their medications. There were seven videos of Grant. In one of them, the man was on the floor and the accused could be heard “interrogating” him as to why he was there and not using his walking stick, the inspector stated. In a later video, Ayers had appeared disorientated.

Ayer's condition had deteriorated in the eight days he spent with her, the witness asserted.

On a video taken on the day before his death, Mijalkovic could be heard asking him whether he loved her and wanted to go to England. There was also a video of the woman asking Ayers whether he wanted to be taken to hospital, to which he replied that he didn't.

The inspector said the videos had led him to believe that the men had been held in “conditions of great negligence.” The men had both been seen to be staring blankly in the videos, he said. In one, “Ayers was rasping so much that he is barely understandable.”

Mijalkovic had told the police that the men would administer the medicines to themselves. She confirmed filming Ayers and Grant several times, initially explaining that she “didn't want to be blamed for anything,” later saying that she would be able to prove that they had refused to go to hospital.

She had told police that she would receive money from abroad, the medicinals were bought from England. She later changed her story to say that Ayers had stayed in Malta because he wanted to stay with her, inspector Fleri said.

Defence counsel, lawyer Yanica Bugeja, cross-examined inspector Fleri.

Ayers had been on medication for blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as aspirin. The medicines appeared to have been bought in the UK and no prescription had been found, he said. She had told the police that that the men would take the same pills.

“She knew the men's dosage by heart.” “Because I remember!” the accused remarked.