Lead investigator Keith Arnaud has given jurors a detailed account of how police responded in the immediate aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, revealing new details about the investigation’s earliest stages as he testified in Yorgen Fenech’s trial.Arnaud, who was heading the Homicide Department as an inspector in October 2017, told the court police were informed of the explosion in Bidnija shortly before 3pm on 16th October 2017.Investigators immediately secured and preserved the crime scene, where they confirmed the victim was journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.One of their first priorities was determining how the bomb had been detonated, whether by mobile phone, SMS, timer or another method. The FBI was brought in to assist with analysing telecommunications data after police obtained records from every local mobile service provider covering the area.Arnaud said investigators made a crucial decision from day one: nothing at the crime scene would be touched until international forensic experts arrived.“We preserved everything,” he told the court, explaining that members of the Malta Police Force and the Armed Forces of Malta secured the scene while experts from the FBI, Europol and the Netherlands assisted the investigation.Despite the extensive damage, investigators quickly concluded that the explosive device had been placed inside the vehicle rather than underneath it. They later identified the exact point of the explosion through a crater in the road and reconstructed the car’s trajectory using marks left on the road after the blast.The court also heard that Matthew Caruana Galizia told investigators his mother had left home only moments before the explosion. Arnaud said Daphne had briefly returned inside the house after getting into her car because she had forgotten her chequebook before driving off again.Arnaud also described how investigators searched for locations from which Daphne’s home could have been discreetly monitored before the assassination.They identified a vantage point near Victoria Lines, from where it was possible to clearly see the entrance to her home and her car without attracting attention. He noted that journalists were also using the same location to film the crime scene after the explosion.While examining the area with another police officer shortly after the blast, investigators spoke to a nearby resident who reported seeing a suspicious car with a number plate ending in “QZ” parked there in the days leading up to the murder. The witness said the vehicle was also there on the morning of the explosion but had disappeared afterwards.According to Arnaud, investigators realised the spot described by the witness offered a clear view of Daphne’s gate and driveway. The court also heard that Matthew Caruana Galizia had parked his mother’s car just outside the gate the night before, meaning anyone watching from that vantage point could monitor movements at the property.A magisterial inquiry was immediately opened under then-Magistrate Anthony Vella, with local and international experts appointed to examine the crime scene.The trial of Yorgen Fenech, who is charged with complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and criminal association to commit the murder, continues.Lovin Malta is reporting live from the courtroom and will continue to bring you the latest updates from the trial.•