Police had reportedly summoned John Cassar just hours before his mother’s brutal murder in Mqabba, raising serious questions about whether warning signs were missed in the lead up to the femicide that has shocked Malta. According to information emerging after the killing, a complaint involving John Cassar, aged 47, had reached the police domestic violence unit on the day preceding the fatal incident on 15 October 2026, prompting officers to call him for questioning, though the precise contents of that report, how it was documented and what risk assessment was carried out remain unclear and are now the subject of intense scrutiny. The Nationalist Party has demanded clarification from authorities about what information was received, whether it triggered the established procedures intended to protect people potentially facing domestic violence, and whether officers considered immediate protective measures or examined the legal and operational protocols required when a potential threat is identified.
The tragedy unfolded on Thursday afternoon at around 2.40pm in Triq Valletta, Mqabba, where Mary Grace Cassar, 72, was found dead inside her residence known as Id-Dar tan-Nannu after being stabbed with a screwdriver, while her husband Ganni Cassar, 74, was discovered outside suffering serious chest wounds and taken to Mater Dei Hospital in critical condition before stabilising. CCTV footage allegedly showed John Cassar entering the property around the estimated time of death, and after the attack he fled to his home in Hal Farrug where police negotiators contacted him via video call, during which he reportedly claimed he had killed them both, warned his ex-wife not to bring their children to their grandparents’ house because of a macabre scene, and appeared to be consuming drugs, later admitting to taking cocaine over several days. He was apprehended after a short standoff and subsequently arraigned before Magistrate Nadia Vella on charges of murdering his mother and attempting to murder his father, pleading not guilty and being remanded in custody, with the case gaining added notoriety because he is the brother of Roderick Cassar who is currently serving 40 years for the femicide of his wife Bernice Cassar. The revelation that police had summoned him hours earlier has now placed the handling of the prior complaint at the centre of the debate on domestic violence protection in Malta, as investigators examine whether a reliable assessment of risk could have prevented the killing.
