Ex-Malvern College hockey coach accused of stabbing his spouse to loss of life kissed one other lady as a result of he missed ‘romance’ in his marriage, court docket hears

A former international hockey player accused of the murder of his wife told another woman ‘I love you’ in an email sent just weeks earlier, jurors heard today.

Mohamed Samak, 42, had ‘reconnected’ with the woman he had last met 17 years earlier and took her sightseeing in London – after getting wife Joanne, 49, to go online to pay for his ‘expensive’ parking fee in the capital, a court heard.

The woman, Fadila Fadou, had been a guest at an Egyptian hotel where Samak worked in 2009. He told the court they developed feelings for each other and kept in touch after she left. 

But contact between the two fizzled out and they did not speak again until the Covid lockdown in 2020.

The former Egyptian international hockey player and coach admitted they met up on June 15 last year when the woman visited London for work and said he did not tell his wife about the meeting because he did not want to upset her.

After showing her the sights of London in his car and sharing a meal at a restaurant, Samak said he kissed the woman at the end of the night. 

Samak denies murdering Joanne at their home in Chestnut Spinney, Droitwich Spa, in the early hours of July 1 last year.

He claims his wife’s six stab wounds were self-inflicted because she was suffering from mental health and alcohol issues. But the prosecution argues he killed his wife because of financial difficulties and becoming interested in another woman.

Samak told jurors he had first met Ms Fadou in 2009 when she stayed at the Red Sea resort hotel where he worked in Egypt. 

Worcester Crown Court has heard he met his wife, an interior designer, in the same manner when Mrs Samak had been a guest at the hotel where he was entertainment manager in 2011.

Samak told the jury he became friends with Ms Fadou during her holiday in 2009 and the pair kept in touch for a time on social media. 

But he said he developed feelings for her towards the end of the coronavirus lockdown period in 2020 when the pair began messaging again after she liked a picture he posted to Instagram.

Samak said that between 2020 and 2022 they were talking via WhatsApp and he admitted telling Ms Fadou about his wife, but not his wife about Ms Fadou, because that might ‘upset her’. He told the jury he wasn’t planning on ending his marriage.

Juors heard that in March 2022 Samak sent a message to Ms Fadou saying: ‘Have a lovely night and thank you so much for giving me such a wonderful feeling. 

‘Also thank you for the promise of giving us a chance and see what we can do with a future plan.’

The following month, he sent her a message saying: ‘Morning darling. I do apologise if I have disturbed you. I thought you might be on your way to work….I just wanted to say I miss you so much.’

Asked about his feelings for Ms Fadou by defence barrister John Jones KC, Samak said: ‘I liked talking to her. I liked the feelings I was missing with Jo’.

The court heard the pair’s contact ceased between 2022 and April 2024, when Ms Fadou messaged him on his birthday. The court heard Samak replied saying that he was missing her, but that she then told him there was little point in them talking.

A month later, on May 18 2024, Samak messaged her on Facebook, saying: ‘I follow every post that you post on social media. I have kept you in my mind and heart because I’m always missing you.’

The court heard that days before he sent the message, as Samak and Ms Fadou began to finalise plans for their meeting in London, the defendant had emailed her with the opening words: ‘I love you’. 

Asked about this, Samak suggested he had cut and paste the words from an email he had sent the woman back in 2009.

The court heard the pair met in London on June 15. They went sightseeing and then enjoyed dinner together before walking back to Samak’s car.

Samak told the court: ‘Before she left, I said goodbye. We ended up kissing – I kissed her. Afterwards she said we shouldn’t have done that and I agreed and apologised. I didn’t think it was right because I was a married man.’

Ms Fadou later sent Samak a message saying she had felt uncomfortable after kissing a married man, the court heard. 

Samak told the jury that a few days after the liaison, he told his wife ‘there was somebody else whom I have started to develop feelings for’, leaving his spouse ’emotional and upset’. 

He said: ‘I didn’t want to mention her name or what happened, but share that we need to have a chat together because I met with someone and started to have feelings.

‘She was emotional and crying. She was upset. I was the same and I told her I promise you this is not something that is serious, I can’t leave you and it’s just the feelings I’m missing with you.’

Samak told the court his wife was ‘disappointed’ but admitted their relationship had become distant.

When asked by Mr Jones if the couple had argued, he said: ‘It wasn’t an argument but there were questions from her side, why would you do that, have you not thought of me, and I understand that.’

When asked by defence barrister John Jones KC whether he and Joanne had been happily married, Samak, who became emotional during his evidence, said: ‘I was fortunate to have Jo and the marriage wasn’t the best but it’s not that I think about leaving or thinking about having a different relationship with someone.

‘We love each other, kiss each other as normal, but don’t really share things as a married couple.’

Asked if he wanted to leave his marriage, Samak replied: ‘I never wanted to, I wanted the marriage to work.

‘I loved Jo. We were busy but it doesn’t mean the love should disappear and I’m not just talking about physical, I’m talking about the emotional connection, not just sharing a bed.’

The defendant told the court the couple never argued or raised their voices at each other and never had disagreements about money but said in the years before his wife’s death, he was becoming concerned about how much alcohol she was drinking.

He said: ‘She raised it herself, she mentioned it and it was regular, something I see when I come back from work, I see empty bottles on the side.

‘She was drinking normal but during the week it started to raise in the last year or two. As soon as she would come back from work, she would go straight to the fridge and get the wine.

‘Sometimes she highlighted she needed to stop and slow down.’

The trial continues.