Former Malvern College hockey coach accused of murdering his interior designer wife admits being a ‘deceitful man who lies’ in court

The former public school hockey coach accused of killing his wife agreed he was a ‘deceitful man who lies’ as he was cross-examined before a jury today.

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

The hockey coach, who used to work at Malvern College, has denied murder claiming his wife took her own life, stabbing herself in the stomach and chest at their home after struggling with her mental health and alcohol.

This morning 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).’

The exchange came after Worcester Crown Court heard Samak told police he had tried to perform CPR on his wife to ‘keep her going’, having found her with stab wounds on his way back from the bathroom.

The jury have been told that Samak and his wife slept in separate rooms – and that Samak, who had represented Egypt and was a member of the England over-40s squad, waited an hour before calling 999.

On Friday, the defendant told the court he was woken by a loud scream and got up to find his wife holding a knife, before she ‘started to stab herself in a quick motion’ as he tried to stop her.

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

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 morning, Mr 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 Mr Sandhu said that while 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.’

The defendant said he had breathed once into his wife’s airways during his attempt at CPR at the couple’s home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, but the prosecutor said he was ‘acting out a lie’ and had wanted the 999 call handler to believe he was trying to help his wife.

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 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

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’.

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’.

Mr Sandhu said evidence from Mrs Samak’s friends and family showed she was ‘no problem drinker’ and the pathology evidence regarding her liver showed that it was essentially ‘normal’.

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 and had booked a holiday abroad.

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’.

The Samaks met in 2011 when Joanne holidayed in Egypt and he was working at the Hilton hotel where she stayed.

They married in 2014 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.

Mr Sandhu told Samak his attempts to portray his wife as a heavy drinker were ‘part of a character assassination of the woman you have killed’.

The defendant denied this and told the court he was not saying Mrs Samak was an alcoholic’.

Samak denies murder. 

The trial continues.

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