Melvin Theuma paid assistant police commissioner and obtained sensitive information

Melvin Theuma admitted in court that he gave money to a former assistant police commissioner who was also providing him with sensitive information about the police investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Under cross-examination on Wednesday, the self-confessed middleman in the assassination told jurors that he had developed a friendship with former Assistant Police Commissioner Mario Tonna and acknowledged giving him money when the senior officer was going through a difficult period.

Theuma also confirmed that Tonna provided him with information about evidence recovered – or not recovered – by investigators following the arrest of the Degiorgio brothers, including crucial information about a burner phone linking Theuma to Alfred Degiorgio.

The revelations emerged as defence lawyer Giannella de Marco scrutinised Theuma’s relationship with senior police officers as part of her cross-examination in the trial of businessman Yorgen Fenech.

Theuma said he knew Tonna from an earlier dispute involving his partner’s former partner, when Tonna was a district inspector. He later rose to assistant commissioner and headed the traffic section.

The court heard that just days after the Degiorgio brothers were arrested in December 2017, Theuma went to the police depot to speak to Tonna.

He admitted being concerned that investigators might have recovered a burner phone used to communicate with Alfred Degiorgio over Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

“I asked him about phones found. I was worried they’d find Fredu’s burner phone, the one he used with me,” Theuma testified.

Theuma confirmed that Tonna subsequently told him investigators had not found the burner phone.

De Marco also confronted Theuma with evidence that he had asked the assistant commissioner whether his own phones were being tapped. Jurors heard a recording in which Theuma specifically asked Tonna to “check if my phones have been tapped”.

Theuma said he used around seven different numbers and frequently changed them, which he attributed to his involvement in an illegal lottery operation.

Questioned further about his dealings with Tonna, Theuma admitted that the senior police officer had effectively reassured him about the investigation.

Asked whether he had ever given Tonna anything, Theuma replied: “I’ll admit that when he was going through a tough time, I gave him something. But that day I gave him nothing.”

Theuma insisted he did not feel indebted to the assistant commissioner, saying they had become friends, “and one thing led to another”.

The cross-examination also dealt extensively with Theuma’s credibility. In one of the most significant admissions of the sitting, he acknowledged that he had lied when he directly implicated disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri in the assassination.

Theuma insisted Schembri had never spoken to him about Caruana Galizia, never sent him to arrange the murder and never paid him for it. He said he had nevertheless become convinced that Schembri and Fenech were acting together, particularly following assurances concerning bail for the Degiorgio brothers.

Cross-examination is continuing.