As the nine jurors listened attentively, Mr Fenech took the stand and gave a blow-by-blow account of what happened the day he shot his wife. The version he gave corroborated his previous testimonies and not once did he try and deny that it was he who fired the shots that seriously injured his wife that day.

“I wanted to keep her with me,” Mr Fenech said when he was asked why he shot her. “I did not want her to leave. I love her.” The visibly emotional accused explained that he left work early on the day in question and went home to find his wife’s car parked in their garage packed with her clothes and belongings.

“I went crazy,” he said. He wanted to lock the garage door. “I would have welded the door to stop her leaving, but it did not come to my mind at the time. Instead I picked up the shotgun.”

In a shaky voice, the accused said he loaded the gun and left it on the ground. When his wife came down, he asked her what she was doing. “I am leaving,” she answered, “I am doing this to help you.”

Mr Fenech said he could not understand this and told her, “if you want to help me, stay with me”. It was at this point that he grabbed the shotgun he had placed on the ground.

“I shot at the car door and she told me she would definitely leave,” said Mr Fenech. He then fired the second shot that hit the car door, but also Mrs Fenech’s leg. “She limped backwards and started screaming. I could not stand the screaming, I would have done anything for it to stop”.

The accused then explained that he first aimed the shotgun at his wife’s head, but did not have the courage to shoot. Instead he lowered his aim and fired a shot that hit Mrs Fenech in the groin.

He dropped the shotgun and ran to his wife. He thought she was dead and picked up the gun again to shoot himself in the head. “Then I heard her gurgle so I dropped the gun and started telling her to get up,” said Mr Fenech.

The accused said he then heard voices outside the closed garaged door. “I yelled at them to call an ambulance. I was like a madman, pacing in circles around the garage not knowing what to do with myself,” he said.

When Mr Fenech opened the garage door, many people came in and started asking him many questions. “I went upstairs into the kitchen and was planning to kill myself. I found the letter my wife had left for me, but I could not read it. The people downstairs began saying she is still alive so I went down next to her.”

Mr Fenech said he told his wife “I did not want to do this to you!,”

In his address, defence attorney Dr Manuel Mallia explained that there it could not be contested that it was the accused that fired the shots at Claire Fenech. What Mr Fenech is pleading not guilty to is attempted murder. He did cause the serious injuries that could have endangered Mrs Fenech’s life, but he did not mean to kill her as the bill of indictment claims, said Dr Mallia.

When prosecuting officer Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell asked the accused why he did not shoot his wife in the head, Mr Fenech said, “ I did not want to kill her. I did not want her to leave”.

Before giving the account of the incident, Mr Fenech explained the events that led to the day in question. He said he had not recovered from a persisting medical problem and was often in pain.

Since this problem arose, the relationship with his wife started going downhill, he said. The complications resulting from an operation affected him physically and emotionally.

“Things changed. It seemed like she did not appreciate the little things I did for her anymore,” he said. Already in tears, Mr Fenech told the court his wife had admitted having an affair. He forgave her and they decided to try and make their 10-year marriage work.

After this, Mr Fenech said his wife was blowing hot and cold, saying she wanted to leave, then sending him text messages saying she loved him. The week before the incident, Mrs Fenech was ready to leave late at night, but he said he asked her to sleep on it. “Then she decided to stay,” he said, “so it was a shock to come home that day and find she had packed her belongings”.

The accused gave what seemed like an honest account of the facts that was consistent with the previous testimonies given in the magistrates’ court and the statement given to the police.

After the accused stepped down, Dr Mallia addressed the jurors and explained why his client admitted shooting his wife but is pleading not guilty to attempted murder.

At the beginning of yesterday’s sitting presiding judge Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono commented on the fact that opinion writers, especially in Sunday newspapers, are interfering in the course of justice. “It is not fair that people with no legal background make comments on trials and practically tell the court how a trial should have been carried out,” said the judge. He specifically pointed out that he was not referring to the journalists who report from court daily.

Towards the end of yesterday’s sitting, one of the jurors asked to make a comment. He said the sound of the journalists typing on their laptop computers was annoying him. Despite the fact that the journalists had been there all throughout yesterday’s sitting and that of the day before, the juror said it was only then that he noticed the sound.

The judge tried to find an alternative explanation for the sound that ticked off the juror, who continued insisting it was indeed the typing. Seeing no way around the apparent problematic sound, Mr Justice Galea Debono asked the journalists to stop typing.

Senior counsel to the republic Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell is leading the prosecution while Dr Giannella Caruana Curran and Dr Manuel Mallia are appearing for the accused. The trial continues today.