‘I’ll kill her... if she won’t be mine, she won’t be anybody’s’ – mother of Chantelle Chetcuti recounts murderer’s shocking statement

“I’ll kill her because if she won’t be mine, she won’t be anybody’s”. These are the chilling words said by Justin Borg to the mother of Chantelle Chetcuti days before Chetcuti was fatally stabbed in the head. 

On Monday, the case against Borg, accused of murdering Chantelle Chetcuti continued. In February 2020, the mother of two was stabbed in an argument outside a football club in Żabbar. Chetcuti’s ex-partner, Borg, was arrested and charged with the murder.  

The first witness, Chetcuti’s mother, Miriam Chetcuti testified that she’d known the accused since he was aged 13. “He would come and play with my son, Kersten. He would chase my daughter around and tell her one day you’ll be my girlfriend. When she was 17 she became pregnant from Justin. He came to me over the moon, because he’d managed to get the girl he wanted.” 

Chetcuti explained that when her daughter had broken it off with Borg, she had spent some time with another guy, who she then broke up with. 

At this point, the court asked Chetcuti who exactly she was referring to, to which she replied. “I don’t want to call him by his name, because of Justin, he’s a monster.” 

Chetcuti said Borg would threaten her and acted violently. “One time he grabbed me by the shoulder, shook me and said: nobody can touch me, I know all the police.” 

Chetcuti said her daughter and Borg were going to have another child, but at seven months’ pregnant, Borg beat her up. “There was another court case after another incident and the police were called. He had told me that if the case continued I would never see my grandchildren again. Chantelle came out crying and said: listen to him, he will actually do what he says,” Chetcuti said. 

Chetcuti said her daughter had also told her that he had punched her in the back at Borg’s house and that she had spent the night on the floor.  

The days leading up to the murder, Borg had become more insistent than usual. “My daughter was scared of him. He would always be behind the door. He would threaten her and say that if she didn’t go back home with him, he would kill her. He said this in front of me.” 

Kersten Chetcuti, the victim’s brother, told the court that his sister had ended up with Borg purely based on his insistence. “He ended up with my sister because she didn’t want to be with him, but he kept insisting and pestering her, throwing stones at her window... we were kids then. He would bring her gifts and cry. Eventually, she dated him,” he said. 

Chetcuti told the court that one night he broke down Borg’s door to find him drunk with pills and a knife. He took Borg to the doctor, and his sister went along as well. 

Chetcuti said that Borg would not accept that the relationship was over, and would phone and text. He said that Borg would bump into his sister, sometimes four times a day. “I told him you’re not ‘bumping into her’, you’re following her. On the day of the murder, He had called me and said ‘do you know who she added on Facebook?’ I told him, ‘Justin, don’t start, I’m not interested’.” 

Another witness who did not turn up for the sitting was found in contempt of court. 

Borg’s lawyer Franco Debono argued that the witnesses had been heard and that one of them had not turned up.  

Debono said that he did not expect that the prosecutor, who did not summon witnesses, to use its failure to object to bail. The court decreed on bail and said that while there was nothing to stop the prosecution from summoning the witnesses at an earlier stage, the court said it was denying the bail request at this stage. 

Magistrate Rachel Montebello presides over the cases, and Lara Dimitrijevic acted as parte civile. The case continues on 11 September 2020.