This was the first case in Malta of a conviction for murder without the victim’s body being found.

Vella appealed against the judgement, saying that the judge who presided over the case – Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono – had given the jurors an incorrect interpretation of the law. He also said that the evidence produced in court was insufficient for the jurors to find him guilty of murder and that the 30-year jail term was excessive.

Vella had filed three statement with the police. In the first he said that his wife had gone missing while in the second, he said that she had committed suicide by jumping off a cliff.

In his third statement, Vella related how he had planned to kill his wife by throwing her from a height because she beat him and his son, because she did not cook and because she nagged him when he returned late home from work.

The appeals court turned down the appeal, saying that the interpretation of the law had been correct, that 30 years in jail for an 8-1 guilty verdict was not excessive and that the court had considered all the facts of the case before handing down its judgement.