“I was told to watch my back because Ronnie Azzopardi had been asking where he could buy a bomb from. He threatened to kill me after his brother Jason left everything to me when he died,” a woman said yesterday during the case against Ronald Azzopardi.

Ronald Azzopardi is accused of planting a bomb in Zejtun, of killing a woman and injuring another and of trying to kill the witness and her three young children.

Ronald, also known as Ronnie, 33, from Cospicua, is pleading not guilty to the murder of Angela Bondin, who was killed after a bomb went off in Zejtun at around 2pm on 18 June 2005.

Yesterday, police sergeant Angelo Curmi described the events of that day. A woman named Therese Grima, whom Azzopardi is also accused of seriously injuring, saw a plastic bag near a post box. Since the refuse had already been collected that day, Mrs Grima dragged the bag into her son’s garage on the opposite side of the road.

PS Curmi, who spoke to Mrs Grima after she was taken to hospital, explained how she said the bag had been too heavy for her to carry. “After leaving the bag in the garage, Mrs Grima went outside and met Angela Bondin, who had gone to Zejtun to visit her father,” said the sergeant. While the two women were talking, the bomb went off, killing Ms Bondin and seriously injuring Mrs Grima.

The police sergeant said Mrs Grima’s husband Joseph had told him that he had seen two men drive up and place the bag at the base of the letter box in the street in question at round 10.30am that day. Along with Mrs Bondin’s murder, Azzopardi is also charged with four attempted murders – of Mary Rose Cassar and her three young children who are aged seven, four and just one year and eight months.

Ms Cassar, who took the stand at yesterday’s sitting, said the accused had been threatening her and her children because she inherited a Mercedes from Azzopardi’s brother Jason, who was killed in 2001.

“When Jason died, he left everything to me and my children. Ronnie Azzopardi was angry because he expected to inherit something from his brother,” Ms Cassar said. She went onto to explain how the accused’s biggest gripe concerned a Mercedes that had actually been involved in Jason’s murder.

“The car had been seized by the police and when it was released I took it,” said Ms Cassar. She claimed that the accused had tried to acquire the car by fraudulent means and also mentioned a civil case that had been heard regarding the ownership of this car and said she won the case around a year ago.

Ms Cassar recounted an incident that occurred around three weeks before the bomb was planted and told how Azzopardi had gone to her friend’s garage, where she kept the car, claiming that the Mercedes was his and had been stolen.

“The accused threatened my friend and said the police were coming. My friend called me and I went over to find Ronnie Azzopardi there. He threatened to kill me and destroy the car if I tried to take it out of the garage,” the witness continued.

She told the court how Azzopardi had called several people to block her from getting the car out onto the road.

“I made many police reports regarding the threats I was getting from Ronnie Azzopardi,” she said, mentioning that he had once shot at the father of her youngest child, who is a year and eight months old.

“I was worried for the safety of my six children, since Ronnie Azzopardi had once threatened to kill me, my children and anyone who was with me,” she continued. Ms Cassar explained that someone had told her that Ronnie Azzopardi had been inquiring how he could buy a bomb, around the time of the garage incident, that is, three weeks before the explosion in Zejtun.

Ms Cassar told the court how, on the day of the explosion, she had taken her usual Saturday route to her mother’s house. “I left my house at around 9.30am, picked up one of my sons from Naxxar and went over to my mother’s in Zejtun,” she said.

She heard the explosion after the family had eaten lunch. “At first I thought it was something to do with the feast, but when I heard there had been an explosion, my heart skipped a beat,” she said.

She explained that when she heard what had happened, her friend’s words, warning her about Ronnie Azzopardi possibly buying a bomb, came to mind. “I went to check my car, the Mercedes, but it had no damage,” Ms Cassar continued. She added that when she had arrived that morning, she had not noticed anything next to her car.

In answer to a question from prosecuting inspector Carmelo Bartolo, Ms Cassar said she had been going to her mother’s house at around the same time on Saturdays for years and always parked her car in the same area.

Towards the end of her testimony, Ms Cassar told the court that there were a total of 11 of Jason Azzopardi’s inheritors and none of them had ever given her any trouble.

The case continues.

Inspectors Carmelo Bartolo and Christopher Pullicino are prosecuting while Dr Joseph Giglio is appearing for the accused. Dr Jason Azzopardi and Dr Cedric Mifsud are appearing parte civile for the victims.