In a Facebook post, Joseph Borda recalled how in 2022, following Bernice Cassar’s murder, home affairs minister Byron Camilleri had requested an inquiry, which later became known as the Valencia Inquiry.

Months later, the inquiry, led by retired judge Geoffrey Valencia, found that the State’s lack of resources and increased workload had resulted in a failure to protect the murder victim from her aggressor. 

The inquiry also recommended the introduction of electronic tagging and the increase in court resources to deal with domestic violence cases. 

In his post, Borda requested a similar inquiry to be opened so that the facts and events leading to Ghirxi’s murder may be properly examined. 

“Furthermore since in this case the perpetrator is dead, the finding of criminal responsibility is secondary and a magisterial inquiry would mainly be held to preserve evidence which is insufficient to serve Nicolette with justice.”

The call for an inquiry was supported by NGO, Il-Kollettiv. 

On Tuesday, Il-Kollettiv noted that the frequency of such femicide cases shows that there are systemic issues which must be solved.