Arnaud instructed officers to collect only devices ‘flagged’ by Keith Schembri as mystery over missing mobile deepens

Fresh testimony before the ongoing Yorgen Fenech murder jury has raised new questions about the disappearance of Keith Schembri’s personal mobile phone after a police officer revealed that investigators searching his Mellieħa villa were instructed to collect only the electronic devices “flagged” by the former prime minister’s chief of staff.

The evidence, given on Monday by scene-of-crime officer Michelle Camilleri, comes after jurors previously heard that Schembri’s personal mobile phone and laptop were never recovered despite extensive searches by investigators following his arrest on 26 November 2019. Schembri was arrested just hours after resigning as chief of staff to disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Camilleri testified that she formed part of the police team that searched Schembri’s residence on the day of his arrest.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Giannella de Marco, she confirmed that after Schembri’s lawyers arrived at the villa, a colleague contacted lead investigator Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud for instructions on which electronic devices should be seized.

According to the witness, Arnaud instructed officers to collect “every electronic device flagged by Keith Schembri.”

De Marco then referred the witness to photographs taken during the search showing at least two mobile phones inside the residence.

Asked whether those phones had been seized, Camilleri replied: “No, I didn’t. I seized what was flagged to me,” referring to Keith Schembri.

The testimony confirms that not every electronic device present at Schembri’s home was collected by investigators during the search. It also adds a new dimension to one of the unresolved issues that has repeatedly surfaced throughout the case – the disappearance of Schembri’s personal mobile phone.

Earlier Court evidence established that investigators never recovered Schembri’s phone or laptop.

Assistant Commissioner Arnaud testified that despite searches at both Schembri’s residence and, several days later, his office at Castille, neither device was ever found.

Earlier testimony also indicated that telecommunications data showed Schembri’s mobile phone was still active shortly before police arrived to arrest him in the early hours of 26 November 2019. The device then disappeared from the mobile network and has never been recovered.

Schembri told investigators that he had lost the phone.

However, technical evidence indicated that it remained active until shortly before his arrest.