A MONSTER hockey coach has been found guilty of stabbing his wife to death in front of their young son.
Mohamed Samak, 43, murdered 49-year-old interior designer Joanne at their home in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire.
The hockey international, who represented Egypt and was a member of the England over-40s squad, has now been found guilty of murder.
The court was told neighbours heard a woman scream and a little boy crying at around 3am on July 1, 2024.
Samak then called emergency crews around an hour later.
Reading from a transcript of the call, prosecutor Matthew Brook KC said: “Do you want the police?
“To which the defendant replied ‘yes, please, I’m in some trouble’ he mentions his wife.
“He says ‘please, I need to help my wife’.
“The operator asks ‘what about your wife?’ “To which the defendant replied ‘she’s got a knife in her tummy’.”
The court heard Samak claimed he went to the toilet, looked inside his wife’s bedroom and saw her slumped, half in, half out of her bed.
He told police he turned Joanne over and attempted CPR until paramedics arrived at the home.
But jurors heard Samak later changed his story and claimed he saw his wife stabbing herself in the stomach.
The couple’s young son told his gran that Samak had “picked mummy up off the bed and she hit her head on the corner of a cupboard”, it was said.
The boy was interviewed by specially trained officers and built a Lego replica of his mother’s bedroom where he had been sleeping that night.
Mr Brook said: “He said when he was in mummy’s room, daddy picked mummy up to see what was in her hands.
“When daddy picked mummy up he had wrapped his arms around her tummy.
“He had been woken up by mummy shouting ‘put me down’.”
The court heard Joanne suffered multiple knife wounds but died from a stab injury to her heart.
Mr Brook said: “The defendant says she inflicted these stab wounds on herself.
“The prosecution says that we are sure that the defendant stabbed his wife and murdered her.”
Samak was head coach of the Welsh under-18s boys and girls hockey and previously head of boys’ hockey at Malvern College, which costs up to £57,285-a-year to attend.
