Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/777084
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 JANUARY 2017 4 MATTHEW AGIUS THE former partner of the Cen- tral Bank's deputy governor, Al- fred Mifsud, has told a court her long-term partner was seeing someone else during their rela- tionship, having sent her mes- sages intended for his lover. Anna Zelbst took the witness stand before Mr Justice Silvio Meli yesterday to testify in a court case Mifsud filed for her eviction from an apartment at Fort Cambridge, Tigné. Zelbst and Mifsud were not married, but a contract for main- tenance had been entered into. Zelbst recently claimed her es- tranged partner had accepted bribes in connection with the purchase of ATMs for Mid-Med Bank, of which he was a chairman between 1996 and 1998. Mifsud has sued her for defamation. In court, Zelbst claimed Mifsud had stopped her from working, claiming she was an unfit mother. "I stopped working, up until 2003 when I became a marketing man- ager for a TV station." The couple's relationship ended in 2006, but was brief ly rekindled in 2009 when Mifsud asked for a reconciliation. "I didn't really want to but I didn't tell him this. In the interest of the children I bowed my head." The Fort Cambridge apartment, over which this case was filed, had not been finished at the time. Instead, Mifsud visited her Naxx- ar home while their children lived with their mother. When she moved to the Fort Cambridge 15th-f loor apartment, Zelbst said she was "very unhappy", appar- ently being terrified of heights. "I kept my mouth shut because of the children and continued to live there." Mifsud rented out another f lat on the same f loor, and lived with his family up until February 2016. Zelbst recalled how she had found out that Mifsud had been seeing someone else. "We went out to eat alone and he was on his mobile. He told me that he was sending an email to the chairman of my workplace. I unlocked my mobile to send a message to my daughter who lives abroad. As I unlocked it I found a message from Alfred. I thought he was joking, as he did this sometimes, but when I read it I found a message to his lover. "I asked him what he was do- ing and he said he was sending an email, so I told him that he had just messaged me. He seized my hand and begged me to for- give him, but I decided that after 24 years of mental abuse it was enough." Zelbst said her daughter was aware of the affair because she had received a similar message by mistake on New Year's Day. Mifsud left the apartment in February 2016. "I came back from a drive to clear my head and found him in bed in his pyjamas. I asked him, 'Do you have a girl- friend? Then get up and go with her'." Zelbst said Mifsud committed to maintain their children until they leave home. "I asked him for it in writing as he is a pathologi- cal liar, and he had told me that the letter would be in the letter- box that evening." At this point, Zelbst claimed Mifsud returned to the Tigné apartment where her son found him rummaging in her files. Mifsud's lawyer, Paul Lia object- ed, arguing that this assertion was hearsay and that this had not been testified to elsewhere. The court allowed her to con- tinue. "I had many documents in this drawer, amongst them three very important ones. My son told me that he had seen it on the ta- ble." She also said that once upon returning from abroad, she had found that her car had been taken away from the airport car park. It was then that she had found that it had not been registered in her name in the first place. She filed a police report but that action was still pending. The case continues in March. News Alfred Mifsud texted partner an SMS intended for lover, Zelbst tells court Alfred Mifsud has filed defamation proceedings against former partner Anna Zelbst Woman facing double murder charge 'filmed deteriorating health of victims', court MATTHEW AGIUS A Serbian woman charged with the murder of two elderly British expats had filmed their deterio- rating health to protect herself, a court has been told. 42-year-old Dragana Mijalkovic is charged with the wilful homi- cide of David Grant, 68, and Nev- ille Ayers, 78 and knowingly en- dangering their health. Mijalkovic is contesting the charges. Mijalkovic sobbed loudly as she took her seat in magistrate Anto- nio Micallef Trigona's courtroom yesterday, but had composed her- self by the time her case was called. Inspector Fabian Fleri took the witness stand. He explained that on 12 October, the accused had gone to the Qawra police station to tell them that some 20 minutes be- fore, she had called an ambulance to assist an unconscious person in her apartment but this had not yet arrived. Police had found the body of an Englishman between the wardrobe and the bed. Ayers, who has a partner and child in the UK, was declared dead at the scene. The police had noted abrasions on both his forearms, the inspector said. An autopsy had established the cause of death to be asphyxia. Initially, the woman had not been a suspect, Fleri explained, but it was later noted that nine months before Ayers' death, another Eng- lishman, David Grant, had also died there. Grant had been found to have died of pulmonary oede- ma. After the cause of Ayers' death was established, the police had ar- rested Mijalkovic on suspicion of murder. When her passport was checked by police, it was found that she had outstayed her permit in Malta by several years, he told the court. Officers found around €1,700 in cash in the apartment and the accused had given police several versions of how it had got there, he said. €750 had been returned to the woman after it was confirmed as being hers. Footage of the victims were found on the woman's laptop and tablet, Inspector Fleri said. A neighbour had told police that he had heard Ayers locked in the apartment complex's communal bathroom on at least one occasion. Mijalkovic had been interro- gated. It was noted that she had known the name and dose of every medication Ayers would take. She would administer his pills, Mi- jalkovic told officers, despite him having no prescription and she no medical training. The woman had told the police that on 28 September, Ayers had been unable to pass faeces in three days, so they had gone to a phar- macy in Kappara and were given suppositories, adding that he had refused to take them. He had repeatedly refused to be taken to hospital and so she had eventually filmed him tell- ing her that he didn't want to go to hospital. Some time later, he had become incontinent. She had told police that she had then de- cided to buy nappies for him. On 12 October, Ayers had spent some two hours in the communal bath- room and Mijalkovic said she had received complaints from other tenants. He had fallen over in the bathroom, the inspector said, after which she had taken him into the kitchen. Mijalkovic had told police that there had been other incidents when Ayers had fallen over. He had fallen off the bed several times as well as on one occasion in Birkirkara and another time in Hamrun, which she had given as explanations for his forearm in- juries. The Hamrun incident had been corroborated by a pharma- cist who had treated him, the in- spector added. The police had established that she had won just under €1,000 from a betting shop and that Ayers had "paid for everything, including her rent." Serbian authorities told their Maltese counterparts that Mijalk- ovic had been charged with fraud in 2004. When, on one occasion, Mijalko- vic had left her wallet behind at the Oracle Casino, it had been handed 42-year-old Dragana Mijalkovic is charged with the wilful homicide of David Grant, 68, and Neville Ayers, 78