70 people murdered in past decade

Over a 10-year span 70 people were murdered in Malta, information tabled in parliament shows.

Between 2012 and 2022 there were 64 homicide cases, which in some instances had more than one victim.

The information was presented by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri in response to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Jerome Caruana Cilia.

One of the murder cases registered in 2019 was that of a person reported missing in 2008.

Charlene Farrugia had gone missing in 2008 and 11 years later, the suspect in an unrelated hold-up volunteered information to the police that indicated where Farrugia’s remains could be found. The case was thus confirmed as a murder in 2019 and a year later, John Paul Woods was charged with Farrugia’s murder and hiding her remains in a Valletta shelter.

According to the information tabled in parliament, over the past decade, 2012 was the most murderous with 10 cases and 12 homicide victims.

The year had started with a shocking New Year’s Day double murder in Sliema. An assailant, Nicholas Gera, had entered a penthouse while Duncan Zammit and his wife, Claire Zammit Xuereb, slept with their baby twins.

Gera is understood to have entered the apartment’s main bedroom with two kitchen knives and a gruesome fight ensued between the aggressor and Duncan Zammit. Both men ended up dead. Gera’s motive was never established and police failed to find any link between the victim and his assailant.

But 2012 was also the year that saw several murder cases involving known criminals in what police believe were acts of vengeance.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered in October 2017 by a powerful car bomb metres away from her house

The next most murderous year was 2017 with nine homicide cases and nine victims. One of the victims was Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was murdered in a car bomb just as she left her house. Three men have pleaded guilty to the murder and are serving jail terms, while the compilation of evidence against another three is ongoing, including that of Yorgen Fenech, who stands charged with masterminding the murder.

The current year has seen six homicide cases until the 9 November with a total of six victims.

The first murder case of the year happened on New Year’s Day when Polish student Paulina Dembska was raped and killed in a public garden in Sliema. The case against the man accused of her murder, Abner Aquilina, is ongoing.

Another clamorous murder was that of cab driver Mario Farrugia, who was found dead with multiple stab wounds inside the trunk of his car that was abandoned in a valley in Qormi. Elliott Paul Busuttil was charged in April with Farrugia’s murder and the case is ongoing.

MURDERS

• 2012: 10 cases; 12 victims
• 2013: 6 cases; 7 victims
• 2014: 6 cases; 6 victims
• 2015: 4 cases; 4 victims
• 2016: 5 cases; 5 victims
• 2017: 9 cases; 9 victims
• 2018: 6 cases; 7 victims
• 2019: 4 cases; 5 victims
• 2020: 6 cases; 7 victims
• 2021: 2 cases; 2 victims
• 2022: 6 cases; 6 victims
• Total: 64 cases; 70 victims