The trial by jury of Yorgen Fenech reached one of its most anticipated moments on Friday as self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma took the witness stand, spending hours recounting how he says Fenech commissioned, financed and remained in contact with him throughout the planning and aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination.

Theuma told jurors on Friday that he began secretly recording the businessman because he feared betrayal and believed only the recordings could protect him, saying: "He's a lion and I'm a mosquito."

Theuma said he believed he would either be killed or imprisoned, saying he needed evidence against someone he believed was too powerful to challenge.

Theuma, who testified under a presidential pardon, entered the witness box wearing a dark blue suit and, before answering any questions, turned his attention to the Caruana Galizia family.

"I want to apologise to Daphne's family. My cross was too much to bear. I can't imagine what theirs was like," he said.

Questioned by prosecutor Godwin Cini, Theuma described how his friendship with Fenech developed over several years through gambling and horse racing before they became "very close".

"In 2017 I respected him, I adored him. I would do anything he wanted, I never said no to him," he said, describing Fenech as "Malta's champion" and "a great entrepreneur."

He explained that after becoming acquainted through Fenech's uncle, he later rented him a shop in Qormi and frequently visited him at Portomaso after collecting rent.

According to Theuma, everything changed in early 2017 when Fenech summoned him to the Blue Elephant restaurant at Portomaso.

"We went outside to speak. He asked me, 'Do you know George iċ-Ċiniz from Marsa? Bring him here, I need him to kill Daphne because she's going to publish information about Uncle Ray.'"

Instead of approaching George Degiorgio, Theuma said he contacted Alfred Degiorgio, whom he already knew.

Meeting at the Marsa potato shed and later at Busy Bee, Alfred Degiorgio told him that a team could carry out the murder for €150,000, requiring a €30,000 deposit.

Theuma said he relayed the price to Fenech, but shortly afterwards the 2017 general election was called, and Fenech instructed him to halt everything.

Theuma said he personally gave Alfred Degiorgio €2,000 "not to lose face", with Alfred telling him to contact him again if "the important person" behind the request got back in touch.

During that same election campaign, Theuma testified that Fenech entrusted him with €150,000 to place a bet on Labour winning the election.

While on his way to Gozo with his family to vote, Fenech also asked him to stand guard outside Keith Schembri's house because "he doesn't trust everyone", but Theuma refused.

After Labour's victory, Fenech won €300,000 from the bet. A few days later, Theuma said Fenech called him to Portomaso before leaving on a trip abroad.

"He was going abroad and had a suitcase with him. He took out an envelope and a wad of cash. I asked him, 'What's this?' He said: 'It's the €150,000 to have Daphne killed.'"

Theuma said he immediately drove to the Marsa potato shed, handed Alfred Degiorgio the €30,000 deposit and kept the remaining €120,000 until after the murder.

He testified that two days later Fenech called again urging him to speed things up because "she was going to be publishing some information."

According to Theuma, Fenech remained closely involved in the preparations.

He said Alfred Degiorgio requested information about Caruana Galizia's movements, which he obtained from Fenech.

"Yorgen told me she liked to go to a café in Naxxar and a restaurant in Rabat. I passed that information on to Alfred."

Theuma said Fenech constantly demanded updates.

"Yorgen would ask me every few days, 'When will they kill her?' Once he was on his boat and texted me to say he was preparing champagne in case it happened."

He also recalled Fenech instructing him: "Tell them not to use a bomb like the Romeo Bone one, and just leave her amputated."

Theuma said he passed the message on to Alfred Degiorgio but insisted he did not know how Caruana Galizia would ultimately be killed.

He also described being taken to Bidnija by Alfred Degiorgio, who showed him the area from where the group had been monitoring the journalist before the attack.

Following the murder, Theuma said he disposed of the burner phone used during the plot before meeting Fenech, who reassured him that the arrival of the FBI "would work just like the Maltese police."

He later paid Alfred Degiorgio the remaining €120,000, together with an additional €5,000 for binoculars purchased by the group, explaining he covered that amount himself because he "didn't want Yorgen to think I was scamming him."

Theuma testified that he continued paying Alfred and George Degiorgio €300 every week after their arrest.

"I hated asking Yorgen for money," he said.

He also told jurors he initially paid Vince Muscat €100 weekly before stopping after Muscat's wife began asking questions about the money's source.

"Yorgen knew I was paying them. I was in a very bad way. He gave me €5,000 to go on holiday with my family."

He said Fenech later warned him investigators had identified the SMS messages used to detonate the bomb and that police would soon raid locations connected to the suspects.

Theuma said he immediately relayed the information to Alfred Degiorgio.

Giving emotional evidence, Theuma described the devastating effect the murder had on his life. Asked what he had gained from his involvement, he replied simply: "Depression, that's what I got."

He became visibly distressed when prosecutors asked him to state the date of the murder.

Breathing heavily and wiping away tears, he replied: "16 October at 3pm."

"I was living a normal life. Then I turned on the TV and saw that Daphne was dead. My life ended."

He said the words once spoken to him by lawyer Jason Azzopardi - reminding him that Daphne "was a mother and a wife" - continued to haunt him.

"I'll be in bed, feeling bad and I'll text her sons. I feel huge remorse."

Theuma also revealed that he still exchanges messages with Matthew and Paul Caruana Galizia.

"I don't have the words to thank them. I was involved in their mother's murder, and they still speak to me. They tell me I will feel better after the trial. But I know I won't. The remorse is too great."

He further described spiralling into depression after police raids, saying he mixed Ativan with whisky, drafted a will and contemplated taking his own life.

"I went onto my roof and planned to jump. But then I pictured Yorgen, one leg over the other, smoking a cigar, and I didn't."

The afternoon session centred on Theuma's account of the months following Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder, as he described making regular payments to the Degiorgio brothers on Yorgen Fenech's instructions, his growing fear that he would be betrayed, and the reasons he began secretly recording the businessman.

Theuma described the financial demands made by the Degiorgio brothers after their arrest. He recalled Mario Degiorgio asking for €30,000 to pay legal fees, prompting him to contact Fenech, who immediately handed him the money in cash.

Further requests followed. Mario Degiorgio later sought another €30,000 loan, offering a Rolex watch and jewellery as security.

Theuma said Fenech became angry, believing the brothers would "keep on asking for money indefinitely", but nevertheless gave him €25,000, with Theuma contributing the remaining €5,000 himself.

Theuma said the requests continued over the following months, with money being sought for lawyers, living expenses, school fees and even experts from Italy.

He told jurors he regularly delivered between €2,000 and €3,000 a week to the brothers, explaining that when Fenech was abroad he would pay them himself before being reimbursed.

He also described occasions when he paid money out of his own pocket, saying he once advanced €12,000 before Fenech later reimbursed him.

On another occasion, while on holiday aboard a cruise ship, he arranged for €15,000 to be delivered to Mario Degiorgio after learning it was needed for the bail of George Degiorgio's partner.

According to Theuma, Fenech later agreed to fund an attempt to secure bail for Alfred and George Degiorgio, providing €60,000 for the deposit.

Kenneth Camilleri subsequently told him the brothers would receive bail and each be handed €1 million once released. Theuma said he passed that message on to Mario Degiorgio, who was "very happy" upon hearing it.

He said the decision to begin secretly recording Fenech came after Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, started cooperating with police.

Fenech summoned him to a meeting at his Żebbuġ ranch, where he warned him that Muscat was implicating both him and the Degiorgio brothers and instructed him to pass the warning on.

Theuma told jurors that he concealed his mobile phone inside his sock to record the meeting. At one point Fenech unexpectedly asked to see his phone in order to install the Signal messaging application and enable disappearing messages.

"I froze," Theuma recalled, explaining that he stopped the recording before handing over the device.

He said he needed the recordings because he no longer trusted Fenech and feared becoming the scapegoat.

"I needed them for evidence," he testified. "Yorgen was a very powerful person. I was scared police would delete them if they got the order from someone like Keith Schembri."

Asked why he believed that could happen, Theuma replied: "Yorgen Fenech is a lion. I'm a mosquito by comparison. Who would believe me without the recordings? They would have gotten rid of me or put me in prison a long time ago."

Theuma also told jurors that he had driven to police headquarters on three separate occasions intending to confess his role in the murder but lost his nerve each time.

He said he instead confided in Edgar Brincat, known as il-Gojja, admitting that he had acted as the middleman in the assassination.

According to Theuma, Brincat reacted angrily, telling him he had ruined his life, while warning him that seeking a presidential pardon was unrealistic because "Yorgen is favoured by the government."

Theuma said Brincat later advised him to play some of the recordings to Fenech to prove he really possessed them and to install a car alarm in case someone attempted to plant a bomb beneath his vehicle.

The witness said he also arranged for copies of the recordings to be sent to the Nationalist Party if he were killed. He additionally sent Fenech three recordings together with the infamous handwritten letter naming himself as the middleman and alleging that Fenech and Keith Schembri were the masterminds.

When shown the letter in court, Theuma insisted he had included Schembri's name only because of "the madness (he) was going through".

"I have nothing on Keith Schembri. Keith Schembri never gave me a penny and never mentioned Daphne Caruana Galizia to me. For sure."

Theuma concluded the day's testimony by recalling that he had once unknowingly given Daphne Caruana Galizia a lift after her tyres had been slashed at Portomaso, saying he did not even know who she was at the time.

Proceedings had opened with the conclusion of family doctor Adrian Vella's cross-examination, during which jurors heard recordings of his 2019 police interrogation.

Vella confirmed telling investigators that Yorgen Fenech had repeatedly said he expected Keith Schembri to help him and that "if we go down, we go down together."

The court also heard Vella describe being interrogated for 17 hours, during which he said then police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar accusing him and repeatedly called him "a liar", after he insisted the documents had come from Schembri.