Qawra double homicide suspect requests bail as more witnesses testify

A woman accused of murdering two British pensioners in her Qawra flat made a fresh request for bail this morning.

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

Ayers' body was found in her apartment. The police had noted abrasions on both his forearms and an autopsy had established the cause of death to be asphyxia.
Mijalkovic, a Serbian national, had become a suspect after it was noted that nine months before Ayers' death, Grant - another English man - had also died in the same flat. The cause of Grant's death had been established as having been pulmonary oedema.

Mijalkovic was arrested on suspicion of murder after the cause of Ayers' death was established and was found to have outstayed her permit in Malta by several years.

Inspector Maurice Curmi from Qawra police station took the witness stand this morning, telling magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona how the “frantic” woman had gone to the police station in person on 12 October last year, pleading for medical assistance. She had told officers there that she had already called an ambulance, but after waiting in vain for 30 minutes she had decided to seek help from the police.

Inspector Curmi said he had gone to the site and had found Ayers's motionless body. The man was pronounced dead at the scene when the ambulance arrived, he said.

“He had several bruises and marks on his body which looked suspicious and so I informed the duty magistrate Aaron Bugeja, who arrived on site an carried out a site inspection.”

Inspector Curmi said he suspected foul play. The accused was found to be carrying €1,695 in cash, he said. In a previous sitting, the police had confirmed that the accused had just won nearly €1,000 at a betting shop.

A sergeant from the police vice squad testified today that the accused had refused legal assistance and had signed a document to this effect in the presence of the sergeant herself and three other officers. The next witness, a police constable from the vice squad, testified that she had been with the accused on 13 October. “She spoke to the lawyer and I was present when this took place.”

When the sitting was called this morning, Mijalkovic's lawyer, Peter Fenech, informed the magistrate that he had just filed a court application, asking for his client to be released on bail.

Fenech reminded the court that he had asked for bail in the last sitting and was told that “two or three” civilian witnesses remained to testify. He had filed an appeal over the denial of bail and a lawyer from the Attorney General's office had confirmed this number of pending witnesses to the appellate court. No civilian witnesses were summoned today.

The court said it was awaiting a reply from the Attorney General on the issue of bail.

The case will continue in two weeks' time.

Police Inspectors Fabian Fleri and James Grech are prosecuting. Lawyer Peter Fenech is defence counsel to Mijalkovic.