Mohamed Samak: Former school hockey coach accused of murdering wife was ‘unhappy’ about lack of sex

A former public school hockey coach accused of murdering his wife was unhappy about their lack of sex, his mother-in-law told a jury yesterday.

Mohamed Samak, 42, is accused of stabbing interior designer Joanne, 49, after the couple “drifted apart” and he struggled to find work.

A court heard the ex-hockey player, who previously worked as a coach at the prestigious boarding school Malvern College, also “had feelings” for another woman.

Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC said messages showed Samak had “kissed or at the very least come close to kissing” her after they met for dinner weeks before his wife’s death on July 1 last year.

Jurors at Worcester Crown Court were told the married couple slept in separate beds and Mrs Samak’s mother, Penelope Vale, said Samak “didn’t think it was right that they hadn’t slept together for some time”.

Ms Vale added that in the year leading up to her daughter’s death at home in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, Samak revealed “he felt lonely”.

Samak, whose work was “sporadic”, claims his wife stabbed herself in the stomach and chest six times after struggling with alcohol.

But prosecutors said Samak wanted to depict her as an “alcoholic” to aid “his account that Joanne took her own life”.

Chevonne Davis, Mrs Samak’s long-time friend, told the court she was a “beautiful person” who was “in a really good place”.

The jury previously heard an “agitated” Samak called a financial adviser the month before the death about his lack of work, and he was the beneficiary of his wife’s £180,000 life insurance.

The trial continues.