Former hockey coach Mohamed Samak has admitted to being a “deceitful man who lies” while testifying in his murder trial. He is accused of killing his wife, Joanne, 49, at their home in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, after their marriage deteriorated and he struggled with unemployment.
Samak, 42, who previously worked at Malvern College, denies the charges, claiming Joanne took her own life by stabbing herself due to mental health struggles and alcohol use, according to Daily Mail.
On Monday, Samak was taken through extracts from a number of his police interviews by prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC, who put it to the Egyptian national: “None of the words that you say are true. You’re a deceitful man who lies.”
Samak replied: “(I) Agree. I lied…I didn’t know what to say. I tried to protect a lie with another lie. But I was the only person in the house and I was worried I would take the blame for it (Mrs Samak’s death).”
During his murder trial at Worcester Crown Court, Samak claimed he attempted CPR on his wife after finding her with stab wounds. The jury heard that the couple slept in separate rooms and that Samak, a former Egyptian international hockey player and England over-40s squad member, waited an hour before calling 999.
He testified that he awoke to a scream and saw his wife stabbing herself in a “quick motion” as he tried to intervene. Samak said he had “carried out CPR, but not proper CPR because I was panicking.” He added: “My hands were not in the right position (on her chest) because of the blood and cuts.”
As cross-examination resumed this week, prosecutor Sandhu asked the defendant: “When did you make that (account) up?” and pointed to his defence statement in which it was stated that Samak “did not at any time carry out CPR on the deceased.”
Samak told the barrister his account in court was “the truth”, adding: “I did carry out CPR, but I didn’t do it continuously. I was in a state of shock and I couldn’t think or function.”
But Sandhu said that an attending police officer who started CPR ended up with blood on his gloves “which came from her (Mrs Samak’s) chest.” He told the defendant: “You, on the other hand, had no blood on you, did you?”
Samak, who is also a qualified lifeguard, replied: “I was avoiding touching the cut.” Samak claimed he attempted CPR on his wife, breathing once into her airways, after finding her with stab wounds at their home in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
However, the prosecution argued he was “acting out a lie” and had only pretended to help to mislead the 999 call handler. Samak denied this and said “I wasn’t acting at all.”
He told the jury: “I lied too many times…but I’m not a murderer. I’m not a killer. What would make me do that?”
Samak claimed his wife’s drinking worsened after she was made redundant last spring, saying she consumed up to one-and-a-half bottles of wine nightly. The court heard a message Joanne sent to her best friend four months before her death, in which she admitted to “drinking wine every night.”
Prosecutors have said Samak was seeking to characterise his wife as “an out-of-control alcoholic in order to bolster his account that Joanne took her own life.”
The prosecution argued that Joanne was not a heavy drinker, citing testimony from friends and family as well as pathology evidence showing her liver was “essentially normal.”
Despite being made redundant in March, she co-founded an interior design company, Chapter 9 Design, with former colleagues and was actively planning her 50th birthday and a holiday abroad.
Jurors also heard that Samak was facing financial difficulties and had rekindled feelings for a former female acquaintance. He admitted their marriage “wasn’t the best.”
Joanne and Samak met in 2011 while she was on holiday in Egypt, where he worked at a Hilton hotel. They married in 2014, and Samak later secured a hockey coaching job at Malvern College, which lasted 18 months. He also worked with the Welsh under-18 national team.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Sandhu accused Samak of trying to smear his wife’s character by portraying her as a heavy drinker, calling it a “character assassination of the woman you have killed.”
Samak denied this, insisting he never claimed she was an alcoholic.
The trial is ongoing.
Egyptian hockey star charged with murdering his wife to stand trial
