Updated | Birkirkara man charged with murdering Roderick Grech, 26

A man has pleaded not guilty to the willful homicide of Roderick Grech, 26, who died at Mater Dei Hospital two days after he was stabbed.

Known as ‘il-Vojt’, Etienne Bartolo, 36 of Birkirkara, was arraigned in court this afternoon. The man, who is unemployed, pleaded not guilty to charges of willful homicide, carrying a knife in public without police licence and breaching the peace.

Naxxar resident Roderick Grech was found on Wednesday at 1.10am on the pavement besides a running car. He had suffered several stab wounds to the chest and was already unconscious at the time of the police’s arrival. The young man succumbed to his wounds earlier this morning.

Roderick Grech suffered several stab wounds to the chest

Grech is known to the police, having received a suspended sentence for the 2012 hold-up of a convenience store in Birkirkara. The botched investigation into that hold-up caused a sequence of events that ended up with Darryl Luke Borg - who was also detained by police as a suspect, despite Grech having admitted responsibility for the robbery – filing a human rights claim against Malta before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  

Inspector Kurt Zahra explained that the police had found the victim's car in the middle of the road. His last communication had been with the accused, he said. A person who had given the victim first aid had told the police that he had heard the victim say something indistinct about "il-Vojt."

According to the inspector, Grech had met Bartolo to sell drugs, but Bartolo hadn't paid. When they met to pay the next day, a fight broke out and Grech was stabbed several times, running out of his car and screaming for help.

Lawyer Edward Gatt, assisting the accused, told the court that Bartolo was pleading not guilty and asked for a copy of the man's police statements and the transcripts thereof to be exhibited.

Bail was not requested.

"Obviously we rebut that this happened. The accused had a relatively clean record. The victim is a notorious person and had been dealing drugs at the time,” the lawyer told the court.

Lawyer Franco Debono and Yanika Vidal appeared parte civile for the Grech family.