Ex-Malvern College hockey coach accused of murdering interior designer wife breaks down in tears as he tells court ‘moment he woke to find her stabbing herself’

A former public school hockey coach accused of killing his wife broke down in tears as he told how he woke to find her stabbing herself.

Mohamed Samak, 42, who previously worked at Malvern College, is accused of murdering interior designer Joanne, 49, after the couple ‘drifted apart’ and he struggled to find work.

He has denied murder claiming his wife took her own life, stabbing herself in the stomach and chest at their home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, after struggling with her mental health and alcohol.

Recounting the night she died for the first time while giving evidence at Worcester Crown Court on Friday, Samak told how he returned to the family home late on June 29 after spending the weekend working in Cardiff.

He said his wife was in bed and said to him: ‘I have had enough of all this, I have had enough of this life’.

Samak said she then went to sleep in one bedroom, while he went to sleep in another before he was woken later by a loud scream.

He said he got up and saw his wife with her back to him, facing the wall.

Asked by defence barrister John Jones KC what his reaction was Samak replied: ‘I said Jo are you OK?’

Mohamed Samak is accused of stabbing his interior designer wife Joanne (above, together) 

Police and forensics at the couple’s home where Joanne was found dead on July 2 last year

He said he went towards her and when she turned he saw a knife in her hands.

‘Straight away I said ‘what are you doing?’ She said ‘leave me alone, I don’t need any help’. I did not know what was going on. It’s the middle of the night…what was she doing with the knife’. He said she then moved towards the side of the bed and he could see she was ‘going backwards and forwards with the knife’.

Choking back tears he told the court: ‘I tried to put my arms on the knife…. I did not know what was going on. She was screaming. I tried to stop her hand. Everything just happened in a second…I was just in shock.

‘I never ever thought that I would witness something like that in my life’.

He went on: ‘She started to stab herself in a quick motion. I tried to stop her, everything slowed down. I was trying to stop her.’

He told how he she lost her balance and he laid her on the floor where he saw her take her two final breaths.

He said he saw a knife ‘hanging sideways’ from her right side.

The court has been told Samak, who had represented Egypt and was a member of the England over-40s squad, waited an hour before calling 999. When asked by a 999 operator if Jo had ‘stabbed herself he replied ‘I think so’. Questioned on Friday as to why he had said that he replied: ‘I was worried I would take the blame for it. I panicked.’

Samak claims his wife Joanne (pictured together) stabbed herself in the stomach after struggling with mental health and alcohol

 Police and forensics at the scene on July 2, 2024

Asked why he didn’t do CPR, in which he was trained through his job, he said he was scared of the blood and ‘didn’t know what to do’. He said she was blue and he had seen her taken her final breaths. ‘I did not know what to do…I was in a state of shock, I was panicking,’ he told jurors.

He was also asked what he was doing during the 999 call. Mr Jones said he took 391 steps during the 10-minute call to emergency services. He said: ‘When I was talking to her [the call handler] I was downstairs and upstairs and walking around.’

Samak later told police he had carried out CPR but officers noticed there was no blood on his hands. He told jurors: ‘I think all the lies were because I was the only one in the house…and I could take the blame. I think the words just came out of my mouth at the time.’

He said he struggled with English and wanted to make his account ‘believable’.

Previously, he claimed his wife drank up to one-and-a-half bottles of wine a night and her drinking became worse when she was made redundant last spring.

The court was read an extract of a message Mrs Samak had sent to her best friend four months before her death last July in which she had admitted to ‘drinking wine every night’.

But prosecutors said he was seeking to characterise his wife as ‘an out-of-control alcoholic in order to bolster his account that Joanne took her own life’.

Mrs Samak was made redundant in March last year but went on to set up a new interior design company with eight of her former colleagues, called Chapter 9 Design, the court heard and had been making plans for her 50th birthday party.

Jurors have been told Samak was experiencing financial difficulties and ‘had feelings’ for a former female acquaintance with whom he had reconnected. He admitted their marriage ‘wasn’t the best’.

Samak told jurors he had not touched the knife found in his wife’s stomach and had only every used it to cut fruits.

Asked directly by Mr Jones if he had killed his wife he sobbed as he replied: ‘Why would I kill my wife? Why would I not just leave, why would I kill her?’

The couple met in 2011 while Mrs Samak, an interior designer, was on holiday in Egypt and he was working at the Hilton hotel where she stayed.

They married in 20124 and Samak then landed a job coaching hockey at prestigious Malvern College which lasted 18 months. The trial has heard Samak had also worked with the under-18 Welsh national team.

The trial continues.

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