Elliot Paul Busuttil, 40, of Attard has admitted to carrying out the 2022 murder of 62-year old Mario Farrugia as well as the attempted murder of another man whom he attacked with a meat cleaver in 2020. He will be sentenced next month.

Making submissions on punishment to Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera this morning, Busuttil's lawyer Edward Gatt told the court that the parties were recommending a 35 year prison sentence. Busuttil had avoided a great waste of court time and resources, said the lawyer. "I see no reason for the court not to accept the agreement reached between the parties."

The prosecution said that the punishment agreed upon did justice to society, the victims and the accused. "The punishment is serious, harsh and reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed by the accused."

Parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi, representing Emil Marinov, a Bulgarian man whom Busuttil nearly killed with a meat cleaver in a similar attack, said Marinov, who suffered a permanent disability as a result of it, also agreed with the proposed sentence. 

Human remains, which later identified as being the Mario Farrugia's, were discovered in the boot of his Peugeot 407 which had been abandoned in a Qormi valley in April 2022, a month after he was reported missing.  

He had been stabbed more than 40 times. CCTV footage and mobile phone location data led investigators to suspect Busuttil's involvement. He was arrested on April 14, 9 days after the body was discovered.

Two years before Farrugia's brutal murder, Busuttil had also been accused of attempting to kill a 57-year-old Bulgarian man in Ta' Qali in a strikingly similar attack.  He had told victim Emil Marinov to meet him after Marinov expressed interest in buying a pair of speakers that Busuttil was advertising on Facebook Marketplace. After telling Marinov to meet him in Marsa, Busuttil asked him to take him to Ta' Qali, ostensibly in order to hand over the speakers. 

But after telling him to stop in a deserted country lane in the area, Busuttil had jumped out of the car, striking the back of Marinov's head with a meat cleaver. The attacker then proceeded to hit him another 25 times, hacking at the man's head and upper body with the butchery tool for what the victim described as eight to ten minutes, leaving Marinov with deep lacerations to his ears, face, lips and arms. 

Then, after helping himself to the €120 that the victim had been carrying, Busuttil left the scene. He was apprehended a few hours later, at his mother's home at a housing estate in Attard.