Mother ‘spoke dead daughter’s name after murdering her husband following row about buying wine’

A mother murdered her husband by stabbing him in the heart following a row about her leaving the house to buy wine, a court has heard.

Karine Atay, 42, plunged a 12cm knife into 45-year-old Atakan Atay’s chest during a confrontation at their Gateshead home in October, Newcastle Crown Court heard today.

The couple’s three-year-old daughter Sophie died in 2010 from the childhood cancer neuroblastoma and he had named his local convenience store after her.

The kitchen knife penetrated his body just below a tattoo which read ‘Sophie My Endless Love’ before the wife said her daughter’s name, the jury was told.

The couple’s three-year-old daughter Sophie died in 2010 from the childhood cancer neuroblastoma and Atakan named his local convenience store after her

The defendant denies murder and it is expected she will claim she was defending herself, the court heard.

She told detectives that Mr Atay, a Turkish-born businessman and her husband of almost 20 years, was controlling and violent.

John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, said: ‘As on previous occasions, her craving for alcohol led Karine Atay to seek to leave the matrimonial home.

‘There was a confrontation but not a grave one until she chose to pick up a knife and use it against her unarmed husband, deliberately and unlawfully stabbing him more than once, delivering a fatal wound that penetrated into his heart and caused his death.’

Mr Atay called the emergency services as he was dying, but was only able to say ‘999 please’ before his breathing became more laboured.

His wife was guided through how to perform chest compressions by the call handler but did not carry out effective CPR, the court heard.

She was then heard saying: ‘You’re lying. I would never do that to you Atakan. I would never hurt you.’

‘There’s Sophie. We’re going to get you an ambulance. I’m really sorry. I love you so much.’

Newcastle Crown Court heard how Atay knifed her husband just below his tattoo which read: ‘Sophie My Endless Love’

Emergency services had to get into their terraced house through a kitchen window as the doors were locked, Mr Elvidge said.

Atay was arrested on suspicion of murder, having initially claimed she had heard her husband having a fight with someone, and saying he had ‘enemies’.

The next day she gave a statement to detectives, which Mr Elvidge said was in stark contrast to what she had said during the 999 call and to an officer who went to her house.

Mr Elvidge said: ‘Declarations of love and remorse were abandoned in favour of a vitriolic attack on her husband who, she claimed, had subjected her to years of verbal and physical aggression and abuse, had sought to control and degrade her, and attempted to police her drinking.’

She also claimed he once attempted to strangle her.

Atay initially said her husband had ‘enemies’ who may have killed him before saying she acted in self-defence

The defendant said she had drunk two-thirds of a bottle of wine that night and wanted to get more before the violent struggle started with her husband.

She said she could not remember getting a knife.

Atay said in a statement to police after the attack: ‘I’m struggling to cope with knowing I have done it as I know I was arguing and defending myself against him at one point. 

Mr Elvidge said Atay had sought help for her drinking in the past, and that police had been called to their home previously when she was found to be drunk and confrontational.

He said: ‘In drink she could be volatile, confrontational, aggressive and threatening.’

Mr Elvidge said she had threatened to bite the nose off a hospital security guard in 2015, had two road traffic collisions when she was over the limit and was cautioned for biting a nightclub doorman.

The trial continues and is expected to last four weeks.