Ex-International hockey player and Malvern College coach GUILTY of murdering interior designer wife
A former public school hockey coach and international player has been convicted of the murder of his wife – after police discovered bloodied clothes in the marital home, midway through the trial. Mohamed Samak, 43, sobbed in the dock as a jury returned a guilty verdict. The defendant then slumped to the floor and continued sobbing and wailing as the judge discussed sentencing arrangements. Samak will be sentenced on Friday. The former Malvern College coach had been accused of killing his interior designer wife Joanne at their home after the couple drifted apart and he struggled to find sufficient work. He claimed Mrs Samak, 49, stabbed herself, telling police she had been struggling with her mental health and alcohol. Samak's conviction at Worcester Crown Court comes eight months after jurors had been unable to reach a verdict in an earlier trial. Egyptian Samak, who had previously represented his homeland at international level and was a member of the England over-40s hockey squad, claimed his wife stabbed herself in the stomach and chest in July 2024 after struggling with alcohol. But in his opening of the case last month, prosecutor Matthew Brook KC told the court: 'We are sure that the defendant stabbed his wife and murdered her.' Jurors heard the defendant had been under financial pressure – and had enjoyed a liaison with an 'old flame' in London shortly before the murder. In a dramatic development, mid-way through the trial police returned to the murder scene in Droitwich, Worcestershire, to carry out a fresh search of the property - and jurors were told 49-year-old Mrs Samak's blood had been found on a sock and on a black, hockey t-shirt belonging to her husband. The items, which also included a flannel and a grey long-sleeved top, were inside a bag containing Mrs Samak's clothes which her killer had hidden in the loft of the marital home. But the court heard that earlier this year, the house was emptied by Mrs Samak's family and the bags in the loft were moved to the garage, where police found them on October 10. West Mercia Police has said it has not referred itself to the police watchdog over the failure to uncover potentially crucial evidence earlier in the investigation, and has so far declined to reveal what led officers to re-search the Samak's home. But the oversight raises questions over the force's handling of the early stages of the investigation. Jurors heard that a neighbour had been woken by a scream at 3.10am on July 1 last year – but that Samak waited almost an hour before dialling 999. He told a 999 call handler he had found his wife – who slept in a separate bedroom to him – and that 'she's got a knife in her tummy', the court heard. Mr Brook said that Samak told the operator that he had gone to the toilet, looked inside his wife's bedroom and seen her slumped, half in, half out of her bed. Samak had described turning her over and seeing first blood and then the knife before attempting CPR until the police and medics arrived. Mr Brook said that Samak later changed his story and told police that he had seen his wife stabbing herself in the stomach. He said he had waited an hour to call police because he was 'in shock'. Mrs Samak – who had been making preparations for her 50th birthday celebrations in August and was planning a trip to Paris with friends when she died - suffered multiple stab wounds but it was a knife wound to the heart that killed her. Giving evidence in court earlier this month, Samak told the jury how he had found his wife attacking herself with a knife in her bedroom just after 3am. He sobbed repeatedly as he described his brain 'shutting down' when confronted with the horror. He said that he watched his wife take 'her final two breaths' and 'did not know what to do'. Samak claimed his wife was lying between the bed and a chest of drawers and as he pulled her into a 'wider space' he ended up with her blood on his top. 'I was scared that the finger would be pointed at me', he told the court. 'I had blood on my clothes.' Samak claimed he 'panicked' and 'used the sock to cover the blood on the sleeve' and remove his top. Asked what he did next, he said he put the bloodied items in another bag containing clothes which was already in the bedroom - and then put that in the loft. 'My head was telling me to put it away because I was going to get the blame', he claimed. 'I was terrified.' During cross-examination, Mr Brook told Samak that he was a liar and had got blood on his clothes after he had stabbed his wife to death. 'You repeatedly lied to the police. You were thinking, 'I'll keep giving the same account until evidence forces me to change my account',' said Mr Brook. Samak said: 'I lied out of fear. I felt the blame would be on me because I got blood on my clothes. I am a liar. But I'm not a killer. 'I did not kill my wife.' In the weeks leading up to the murder, the court heard Samak had travelled to London – telling his wife he was meeting a fellow hockey coach – for a liaison with another woman. Samak had told jurors at his first trial he had first met Fadila Fadou in 2009 when she stayed at the hotel where he worked in Egypt. The latest trial heard he arranged to meet her after she had got back in touch with him on social media in 2022. Samak told the jury the pair went out for lunch and dinner and had kissed in his car, adding: 'The emotional feelings I was missing in the marriage, I was getting from outside the marriage.' The trial heard Samak was named on a number of insurance policies as a beneficiary in the event of his wife's death . Jurors were told Samak suggested to a fellow hockey coach that his wife was drinking a bottle of wine a night. The coach, Mark Moss, described Samak as a 'brilliant coach' who was 'very successful in coaching people and had people skills'. Samak was head coach of the Welsh under-18s boys and girls hockey and previously head of boys' hockey at Malvern College until 2021, which costs up to £57,285-a-year to attend. He met his wife in 2011 when she was on holiday in Egypt and he was in charge of sports and activities provision for guests at the Hilton hotel where she stayed. The couple married in 2014 but during a night out with friends less than 48 hours before she died, Mrs Samak admitted that she no longer loved the defendant, but felt she could not leave him as he would not survive in the UK without her. Mrs Samak was made redundant in March 2024 but went on to set up a new interior design company with eight of her former colleagues, called Chapter 9 Design.
