Anglu Xuereb refutes 'slanderous' allegations
Orizzont reports: Wife killed Gera, then Xuereb arrived on scene of the crime before police.
Updated with statement by Anglu Xuereb at 11:58am.
The father-in-law of Duncan Zammit, the murder victim in the New Year's Day tragedy that left another man Nicholas Gera, 26, dead, has hit out at press reports in l-orizzont that raise questions on whether the scene of the crime was tampered before the arrival of police..
Speaking on TVM's breakfast show TVAM this morning, Anglu Xuereb said his daughter Claire Zammit Xuereb never changed her version of events since she was first questioned by scene-of-the-crime officers.
"Yesterday she was interrogated for three-and-a-half hours by the police and she never changed her story," Xuereb said.
In a statement released to the press by advertising firm JP Advertising at 11:54am, Xuereb said he categorically refuted "without reservation the slanderou, insensitive and baseless allegations" made against him.
"While I am and shall remain determined to respond and seek justice in court for the great damage my family and I are suffering and are yet to suffer as a result of these allegations, I also feel that at present all focus should be on allowing the Police carry on with the necessary investigations unhindered. Furthermore, at this difficult time, my sole priority is that of dedicating all my energies towards supporting my family and towards seeknig to maybe find some way to comfort my daughter Claire, and to her support to try and surmount the devastation caused by this tragedy."
Police sources have told MaltaToday that according to Zammit Xuereb's version of events, Gera entered the Zammits' bedroom armed with two knives he took from the kitchen, stabbing 32-year-old Zammit, repeatedly some time after 6am on New Year's Day.
However, police leads are also concentrating on the possibility that it was Zammit Xuereb who defended her husband, by fetching the other knife from the kitchen, and fatally wounding Gera.
L-orizzont today published a plan of the Zammits' penthouse, in which Gera - whose relation to Zammit is still a mystery - is believed to have entered from a terrace through the rooftop, made his way to the kitchen, and back to the bedroom.
Citing MaltaToday's reports from neighbours who claim they heard loud sounds at 6am [one neighbour said they thought it was "a drunk person entering the building"], l-orizzont claim Xuereb arrived at Falcon House at 7:15am, before the police were alerted to the crime.
L-orizzont say that while the Xuereb family is insisting on the claim that Gera held two knives in his hand, no blood stains were found on the walls of the bedroom.
The newspaper also says that no blood-stained quilt or sheet was found "to indicate Zammit defended himself using the quilt."
It also said no bruises or cuts were found on Zammit's hands, that would indicate a defensive stance by the father-of-two as he lay asleep in bed.
Instead, it says Zammit ran away as he was being attacked - which is why the blood stains were found in the hall - while his wife fetched the knife from the kitchen to defend him from Gera.
Xuereb - speaking on TVAM - said his daughter called him after the stabbings, and then he left his Rabat home and arrived in Sliema in 20 minutes, with the police already there.