A man yesterday began standing trial charged with the attempted murder of his wife as well as illegal possession of a sharp and pointed instrument.

Paul Caruana, 35, from Zejtun is being charged with trying to murder his wife Sandra on 12 June 2003. He is also being charged with being in possession of a sharp and pointed instrument without a licence and being in possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.

In the bill of indictment, the Attorney General claimed that Mr Caruana was married to Mrs Caruana for nine years but they started to encounter problems and difficulties in their marriage. At some point, she left home because he had beaten her.

Two days later, on 12 June 2003, while they were discussing their problems in her car in Zejtun, he got hold of a knife and stabbed her. He stabbed her in several other parts of her body until he was stopped by passers-by, the Attorney General said

Introducing the case to the jurors, Senior Counsel to the Republic Mark Said said Mr Caruana had the specific intention to kill his wife who, after the incident, was in critical condition.

Testifying during yesterday’s proceedings, the alleged victim of the stabbing incident, Sandra Caruana, explained that on the day in question she went to her husband’s garage in Zejtun accompanied by her sister Carmen Mifsud. She said that Paul came into the car while her sister sat in the passenger seat.

“At the time we were talking about our children because I had not seen them for two days. We had had an argument some days before and that was when I started hitting him and he started hitting me back. I suffered injuries to my face. This argument was about an SMS that I received from his sister’s friend. I knew him by sight but that’s all. I asked him to see the children because the Zejtun feast was approaching. All of a sudden he got out a knife and stabbed me in the chest. I started calling my sister, because she was outside the car at the time, and she managed to get him out of the car and then I lost consciousness,” she said.

She said she came back to her senses some hours later when she was in hospital, where she said she spent more than 15 days. When she left hospital she went to live with her sister Carmen, she said.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Caruana said that her husband was suspecting that she was seeing someone else. “It is true that I was receiving SMSs from a man but he was just joking. During the night, while my husband is asleep, I usually went out. It’s not the first time that I left the children alone at home. There were occasions when he caught me lying to him,” she said, replying to a series of questions by the defence.

Mrs Caruana admitted that she and her sister had gone to her husband’s garage to confront him. She said that just before the stabbing incident, she and her sister blocked him in the car and “my sister started threatening him that she would take his children, his home and his garage and she also told him that if she did not get the children, she would not let him out of the car.”

Before ending her testimony, Mrs Caruana said she had forgiven her husband for what he had done to her.

Earlier yesterday, Mrs Mifsud explained that two days before the incident, her sister had called her and asked if she could live with her for some time because she was having problems with her husband. She said that that day, she left home because her husband had beaten her up.

Two days later, the day of the incident, she was with her sister close to the Zejtun primary school when her sister asked her to accompany her to her husband’s garage because she wanted to speak to him.

She said she went to call him and told him that Mrs Caruana wanted to speak to him. She said she sat in the car while they were talking until Mr Caruana told her to leave them alone for some time. The witness said Mr Caruana looked angry, was crying and was even trembling. She said she crossed the road and he sat in the passenger seat.

“They talked for about 15 minutes and then, all of a sudden, she (Mrs Caruana) started to scream for help because he was hitting her. They ended up on the back seat of the car. I got hold of his T-shirt and pulled him out of the car. Mr Caruana had a blood-stained knife in his hand. He tried to come back towards the car but he was being held by two people,” Mrs Mifsud explained.

The witness added that Mrs Caruana tried to drive but stopped because she was in pain. “I saw a lot of blood and I drove her to the Paola health centre from where she was taken by ambulance to St Luke’s Hospital,” she said.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Mifsud said she did not know of any problems between Mrs Caruana and her husband.

She also said that a few days before the incident, Mr Caruana called her to tell her that his wife, her sister, was seeing someone else and was receiving calls and messages on her mobile, even in the middle of the night.

Mrs Mifsud said she had spoken to Mrs Caruana about her husband’s claims and worries but she always denied everything. She said she is not on good terms with her sister nowadays.

Dr Tonio Xuereb testified that he was the doctor on duty at the Paola health centre on the day in question. He said a man came in and said he needed help because there was someone in his car who was losing a lot of blood. He said he went downstairs and pulled the woman out of the car and checked her blood pressure, which was very low. He said she was unconscious and he assisted her as much as he could until the ambulance arrived and took her to hospital.

Dr Xuereb said Mrs Caruana had a visible laceration about three centimetres long on the right side of her chest and she was not bleeding although her clothes were blood-stained.

Dr Anna Spiteri said she examined Mrs Caruana at St Luke’s Hospital. She said the patient had a horizontal laceration in her chest. Her veins were inflamed and it was obvious that she had internal problems, especially close to her heart. She said she informed the surgeon and the woman was immediately taken upstairs for emergency surgery.

Dr Spiteri said that Mrs Caruana’s injuries were serious and she was in critical condition.

Charlot Azzopardi also took the stand yesterday. He said Ms Mifsud and Mrs Caruana are his mother’s sisters. He said that on the day he opened the garage at 8am when his aunt Carmen Mifsud came and asked to speak to Mr Caruana. He said he called him and Mr Caruana went outside.

“After 10 minutes I heard a lot of shouting and when I went outside, I saw Mr Caruana in a panicked state. My aunt Sandra was inside the car, my other aunt Carmen was outside the car and my friends who were with me in the garage kept my uncle Paul back. My aunts left and some time later my uncle ran off,” he said.

Under cross-examination, Mr Azzopardi said his uncle Paul was agitated. He said that at the time, he was going through a rough period and that his (Paul’s) brother told him to look after him.

For the last four months before the incident, it was like he was not himself, he said.

Mr Azzopardi said Mr Caruana had asked him whether he had sent his wife an SMS at 2am because his wife told him that she had received it from him. That message read: “Why didn’t you come. I was waiting for you.” He said his uncle told him that he thought his wife was seeing someone else.

The case continues today.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono is presiding over the case. Senior Counsel to the Republic Mark Said prosecuted while Dr Emmanuel Mallia and Dr Giannella Caruana Curran appeared for the defence.