The daughter of a woman who was murdered in 2010 is seeking damages from Vodafone, in view of revelations that a former employee provided information about her mother to the man accused of murdering her.

Christine Sammut had been shot dead in Zebbiegh on 11 December, 2010, and her former boyfriend Kenneth Gafà has been accused of her murder.

During court proceedings, it was revealed that a Vodafone employee, Ryan Fenech had provided Ms Sammut’s itemised bill to Mr Gafà. The company immediately announced that the employee had been dismissed.

Through her lawyers Luciano Busuttil and Gavin Gulia, Ms Sammut’s only daughter Caricia has filed a legal letter asking Vodafone to pay damages resulting from its employee’s breach of the Data Protection Act, stating that this breach provided Mr Gafà with the necessary information to locate and murder her mother.

The lawyers also warn of further legal proceedings should the company not comply with the request.

In a reaction to the news, Vodafone said that it strongly denied that information relating to Ms Sammut’s location had ever been disclosed as a result of its former employee’s actions.

“Vodafone Malta takes the privacy of its customers extremely seriously and to this effect the company has detailed compliance requirements in place to safeguard against unauthorised disclosure of personal data,” the company said in a statement, adding that it once more expressed its deepest sympathy to the victim’s family for their loss.