Roderick Cassar handed more jail time for domestic violence incidents before wife's murder

Roderick Cassar, currently serving a 40-year prison sentence for the murder of his wife, has received two additional jail terms linked to domestic violence incidents that occurred before her murder.

Cassar has now been sentenced to three months in prison for holding a knife to his wife’s throat on Mother’s Day in 2022. He was also handed an eight-month sentence for a separate incident on 14 July, 2022.

In the second incident, Cassar was in hospital, as his wife Bernice had brought their children to visit him, but an argument broke out during which he threatened to kill her.

Last November, Cassar was handed a 40-year prison sentence after admitting to the murder of his estranged wife, Bernice Cilia. 

In 2022, he shot his wife in the Corradino area as she was driving to work. The killing became the first case ever prosecuted under Malta’s aggravated offence of wilful femicide. He was arrested following a 17-hour standoff at his home in Qrendi.

Court testimony and public outrage in the aftermath of the murder highlighted systemic failings in the protection of domestic violence victims. Bernice had filed several police reports in the months prior to her death, including one the day before she was killed, reporting breaches of a protection order and threats to her life.

A subsequent inquiry led by retired judge Geoffrey Valenzia found the state had failed to protect her, citing resource shortages and poor risk-assessment procedures. The inquiry recommended urgent reforms, including a triage system for domestic violence reports and new protocols to assess high-risk cases, after the DASH tool classified Bernice’s situation as “medium risk.”