Mohamed Samak would complain that he and his wife Joanne did not have a sexual relationship. An interior designer was living an almost separate life to her hockey coach husband before she was stabbed to death, a court heard. Egyptian Mohamed Samak stands accused of murdering his 49-year-old wife Joanne who he claims stabbed herself “repeatedly” in front of him after he woke at around 3am.
He told a jury at Worcester Crown Court, he found Joanne screaming and “trying to stab herself” before she slumped on a bed with a knife in her stomach at their home in Chestnut Spinney, Droitwich Spa. Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told the jury that Samak, 42, claims his wife was suffering with mental health and alcohol issues but he actually killed his wife after becoming interested in another woman.
On the second day of a trial at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday, the victim’s mother Penelope Vale agreed with Mr Sandhu that the couple, who married in Egypt in 2014, three years after meeting each other when Joanne stayed at the hotel in Taba where Samak was working, had started to lead separate lives before she died.
She told the court the couple, who lived with her, slept in separate rooms and Samak would often work away, on several evenings a week and at weekends playing and coaching hockey. The court was also told Joanne, who was the main breadwinner, would go to bed at around 8pm as she would often wake at 5am for work and her job involved a lot of driving, so did not see her husband much.
