John Cassar pleaded not guilty during his arraignment after being charged with murdering his mother, Mary Grace Cassar, and attempting to murder his father, Ganni Cassar, at the family home in Mqabba.
The court heard that Cassar allegedly sent voice messages after the attack, including one to a woman in which he said, according to evidence cited in court, “I killed them both.” Another message, the prosecution said, warned his ex-wife not to take their children to the grandparents’ house and described the scene as “macabre”.
That matters because it moves the case, at least at this stage, beyond a single accusation of violence inside a home. The prosecution is putting forward a sequence: an attack, messages sent after it, and later statements to police negotiators. None of that is a conviction. But it is a more detailed account of what investigators say happened.
Police investigator Colin Sheldon told the court that CCTV footage showed Cassar entering his parents’ residence around the estimated time of his mother’s death, according to Lovin Malta’s report of the proceedings. The court also heard that Cassar’s father identified his son as the attacker.
Mary Grace Cassar, 72, was found dead inside the property on Valletta Road, known as Id-Dar tan-Nannu. Her husband, 74, was found outside with a chest wound allegedly caused by a screwdriver. He was taken to hospital in critical condition and was later reported to be stable.
The prosecution also told the court that after leaving Mqabba, Cassar went to his residence in Ħal-Farruġ, where police contacted him by video call. During those exchanges, Sheldon said, Cassar reportedly told him he had killed both parents. The inspector added that he believed the accused did not know his father had survived.
There was also evidence about drug use. Sheldon testified that Cassar appeared to be smoking from a pipe and foil during the video call, and that Cassar allegedly said he had consumed cocaine over several days and needed heroin to “come down”. After his arrest, he was taken to Mater Dei Hospital after allegedly consuming crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin, and was later interrogated.
One detail from the arraignment was unusually stark. During routine court questioning, Cassar was asked whether his parents were alive. He initially said they were, before replying: “I choose not to answer.”
Investigators believe the alleged attack may have been linked in part to a dispute over €7,000 that Cassar claimed he was owed. The court also heard that he had posted on Facebook before and after the alleged attack, including references to “seven years of torture” and to being “armed”.
He is also facing charges of threatening his ex-wife and others through electronic communications, causing his ex-wife to fear violence, and drug possession.
Harvey Jr. 
Isla Camilleri