Maksar gang trial: Doctor gives gruesome description of Daphne’s dismembered body

That's it for today

DNA expert Marisa Cassar is next to testify, but her testimony is not audible for journalists in the court room.

We are bringing this blog to a close. A full report of today's proceedings will be uploaded shortly.

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Another court expert takes the stand

Dr. Daniel Vella, another court expert, was appointed to investigate and examine the explosive that was inserted in the bomb used to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia is next to take the stand.

He explains various details of how this was carried out, such as examining the explosion craters created after the bombing.

Daphne Caruana Galizia suffered extensive burns

The body was sealed in a body bag and taken to the morgue, Scerri says.

As experts had suspected, the victim had suffered extensive, full thickness burns with carbonisation - the worst kinds of burns, according to Scerri. On the side of the road, human tissue material expelled from the body was found. The right leg too was also found far from the scene of the murder. Cross examination was reserved.

Victim’s body was in ‘ashes’ – court expert

To sum it up better, the victim was in “ashes”, Scerri says as he explains the extensive damage he saw upon arriving on the scene.

Near one of the wheels, there was a right hand on the street. Between the driver’s seat and the car door, there was a part of the head, including the brain and the bones inside.

These disturbing scenes were shown to the members of the jury with the use of the powerpoint.

An image of the corpse, missing several limbs, is also shown.

A pugilistic appearance, Scerri explains.

Court medical expert takes the stand

Dr Mario Scerri, court medical expert takes the stand. A medical report compiled by him is passed on to the jury. A powerpoint presentation has already been displayed on a screen in the courtroom to supplement Scerri’s testimony.

In the Acts of the Magisterial Inquiry, he was nominated as a court medical forensic expert, and was in charge of the the preliminary investigations on the body on the scene of the murder as well as later in the morgue. He also carried out the autopsy and compiled the report on the findings.

Sitting resumes

We are back in the courtroom and the sitting resumes.

Sitting suspended

The court is suspending the session for a two-hour lunch break. We will continue with our live reporting at 2:30pm.

Post-mortem of Daphne Caruana Galizia murder read in court

Prof. Marie Therese Camilleri testifies next after Kevin Ellul is dismissed and jurors are given a copy of the report.

She and her team were tasked to carry out a post-mortem report on 20 October 2017. The body was recovered in multiple fragments and placed in a body bag.

The skull exhibited multiple fractures, and only a portion of the head was present. The left upper limb remained intact, while the right upper limb was partially missing, with the hand found detached from the body.

The right leg and foot were also detached. The pelvis was split open, and the abdominal wall was completely absent.

Both clavicles were fractured, and foreign objects, including a piece of glass and a brown metal fragment—were found embedded in the neck area.

It was of course concluded by the medical examiner that the victim died as a result of blast injuries sustained in a violent car bomb explosion

Question blitz to Double 0 by defence lawyers

Ellul, known as Double 0, confirms taking Brignone to the Mellieha residence. However, following a series of questions made to him, the witness sarcastically chooses not to answer any of them. 

“Can you explain why you gave Nicole drugs and made her taste them? Did you take drugs, cocaine out of your car and show them to her? Did you have explosives in your garage and show them to Nicole? Did you seek revenge on the Maksar brothers and wanted to put a bomb in their residence? Did you ever stalk them? Did you ask Nicole to remove signals from your mobile phone and cover your faces with hoods, when you were watching them? You used to brag that you know how to create a bomb from scratch, do you really know how to do so? Did you have residence or clothes prepared just in case you needed to flee?” are the questions asked to him.

“I will not answer”, Ellul yells. Ellul chose not to answer any questions.

Defence lawyers laugh in unison and are passing comments. Madam Justice Grima warns them to stop.

Lawyer Amadeus Cachia, who is representing Jamie Vella asks him:“Are you also known as Double 0?”. I will not answer, he replies.

Kevin Ellul ‘Double 0’ takes the stand

Kevin Ellul, known as Double 0, is next on the stand and Magistrate Grima informs him of the right not to incriminate himself, and has a right not to testify.

However, he was also informed the police investigation into his connection to the Daphne Caruana Dalizia murder is closed. He was still given a caution by Madam Justice Grima.

Upon investigation in 2022, police had asked him if he knew George Degiorgio. Keith Arnaud was involved in his investigation together with another inspector. The allegations at the time were that he helped procure a bomb, he confirms. Ellul denied him ever speaking to Degorgio, and that there were no phone calls.

At the time, he answered nothing and exercised his right to silence. He also denied ever knowing Degorgio and told him to bring him Degorgio from prison so he confirms that he does not know this man.

“This is a frame up. I was a victim of a bomb”, Ellul emphasised on Wednesday.

“Who was mentioned apart from George Degorgio?” Cini asks. “Robert Agius too was mentioned” he says, and identifying him in the courtroom. “He was friends with Agius,” he says.

Cini asks him to clarify about the bomb in Għargħur, on a farm in May 2018. He was in ITU and was grievously injured, he clarifies. 

He says he has his suspects, but does not wish to elaborate further on them.

He also said he saw Melchior Spiteri, his girlfriend and Brignone having a coffee and speaking.

However, upon confrontation, Brignone denied having a coffee and speaking with Melchior, but confirmed that she spoke with Spiteri’s girlfriend.

Allegations ‘a malicious lie’ – Muscat

Meanwhile, in a post on Facebook, former prime minister Joseph Muscat denied Nicole Brignone’s allegations in court, saying they were a “malicious lie from beginning to end.”

“I remind everyone that it was the Government led by me that brought in the experts who helped identify and apprehend those who admitted to carrying out the crime. I was never informed of this allegation by the inquiring authorities, nor was I ever asked to testify about it,” he said.

Prosecutor questions Brignone

We are now back to the ongoing proceedings and Brignone is being questioned by prosecutor Godwin Cini from the AG's office.

Cini questions Nicole Brignone’s credibility in relation to her previous testimony in the magisterial inquiry conducted by Magistrate Victor Axiak. Cini asks how long Brignone had been clean, and how long had it been since she was undergoing treatment for her drug addiction.

He also asks if she actually knew what an explosive looked like when she had testified that Kevin Ellul had explosives in his garage.

“No, I don’t know what it looks like but he told me that they are explosives when he showed them to me,” Brignone replies.

Cini asks: “How did Kevin know the Maksar brothers did the bomb on his residence?”

Brignone: “He never told me.”

She also confirms that she never heard any calls from the Degiorgio brothers but based her testimony on what Ellul had always told her.

Testimony read out in full

Nicole Brignone's testimony in the magisterial inquiry has been read out in full to the jurors.

Brignone is in court and heard what she had said in the inquiry.

Clandestine mobile phone and ready to flee

Brignone’s testimony in the magisterial inquiry continues to be read out.

Kevin Ellul had told Brignone that a mobile phone was used from inside the prison to make these calls.

She confirmed that Ellul had used the word “mobile” not “telephone” implying that a clandestine mobile phone was used by the Degorgio brothers, while they were held in custody at the Corradino Correctional Facility, to make these calls in order to avoid being recorded.

Brignone also told the inquiry that Ellul had everything ready to flee. He had clothes ready packed to depart the moment his name was mentioned in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder.

Double 0 implicated Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri in Caruana Galizia murder

Brignone's previous testimony in the magisterial inquiry continues being read out:

Brignone thought she told Brandon Cachia (the inmate who informed fellow inmate Melchior Spiteri of Kevin Ellul's alleged involvement in the Caruana Galizia murder) that Kevin was involved in the Daphne case because Kevin had mentioned these things to her.

Brignone had explained that “if anyone ever did mention him, he had already planned to flee the country”.

“He has a lot of money,” she had said. He owns a house in Italy and told her that if anything happens, he’ll flee Malta and go there.

Brignone had also heard Ellul mention that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was involved, that he definitely gave someone permission or let someone off the hook in the Daphne murder involvement.

“Ellul told me Joseph was an idiot because he was the one who hired us,” Brignone had testified. “I think Keith Schembri was the other politician Ellul had mentioned,” Brignone had said.

It has to be noted that Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri have always denied having prior knowledge of Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder or that they were involved. They have never been charged with the murder but Schembri is facing criminal charges for leaking sensitive information from the murder investigation to Yorgen Fenech. Schembri has denied the charges.

Ellul seemed to know a lot about the murder and he even told her that he knew when it was going to happen. He knew that “the middle man” left the bomb somewhere and then the [Degiorgio] brothers went to place it.

She wasn’t sure who the middle man is. When asked whether the middle man was Melvin Theuma, she had responded in the affirmative.

Brignone had claimed that according to Kevin Ellul, [former prime minister] Joseph Muscat paid Yorgen Fenech.

Jurors hear Brignone's previous testimony being read out: 'A garage full of explosives'

Defence lawyer Rene Darmanin and Madam Justice Edwina Grima are reading out Nicole Brignone’s previous testimony from the magisterial inquiry.

The following are excerpts from Brignone's previous testimony:

Kevin, Double 0, used to give her cocaine and he too used to ingest a lot of drugs, such as heroin. Once, he had said he wanted to bomb the Maksar family.

Kevin always suspected that the Maksar brothers were the ones who planted the bomb at his [Gharghur] residence. He’s the type who stays quiet but plots revenge.

Ellul and Brignone used to go and spy on the Maksar brothers.

She wasn’t sure where the place was as she used to be under the influence of drugs.

“We used to turn off our mobile phones to switch off the signal, when we got to the residential road of Maksar’s residence. The house was surrounded by cameras and we had to hide. We used to cover our faces with our hoods,” Brignone had testified.

The witness had also confirmed that the Degiorgio brothers used to call Ellul from prison since Ellul is very trusted by them. “They used to call him from prison to reassure him that he wouldn’t be mentioned in the Daphne case.”

“Ellul has a garage full of explosives,” Brignone had confirmed and explained the scene in detail, including where the bombs were placed.

She said that regarding Daphne’s case, Ellul knows who did it. The [Degiorgio] brothers tried to get him involved since they trust him a lot.

On Tuesday, jurors heard hearsay evidence from a person who was an inmate with Robert Agius, about claims that the bomb which killed Daphne Caruana Galizia was made by a certain Kevin Ellul, known as Double 0.

However, when testifying, Ellul's former partner, Nicole Brignone, could not recall that she ever told Brandon Cachia, whom she had been dating, that Ellul was behind the Caruana Galizia bomb. Brignone's testimony suggested that Ellul was not involved with the bomb and had blamed the Tal-Maksar brothers for a bomb that had exploded at his own residence in Gharghur in 2018.

Brignone will again be on the witness stand this morning as her previous testimony during the magisterial inquiry will be read out to jurors.

Our court reporter Maya Galea will be bringing us live updates from inside the court hall.

The case is presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima.

Good morning.

We are back inside the law courts to follow the trial by jury of Robert Agius, Adrian Agius, Jamie Vella and George Degiorgio. Robert Agius and Jamie Vella are accused of procuring the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, while Adrian Agius is accused of commissioning lawyer Carmel Chircop's murder in 2015. Vella and George Degiorgio are accused of executing the hit on Chircop.

All men are pleading not guilty.