Bus driver denies murder after ‘stabbing wife to death 68 times’
Sixty-six-year-old defendant claims he ‘acted in self defence’
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A London bus driver killed his wife in a “brutal, frenzied” attack before telling police officers she threatened him first for having coronavirus, a court heard.
Hussein Egal admitted to committing manslaughter last April, during lockdown, but denied the murder charges brought against him.
Describing the 66-year-old’s crime to jurors on Wednesday, prosecutor Allison Hunter QC said it was a “brutal, frenzied, sustained attack involving the use of a hammer, a knife or knives, pots and pans, a table leg and a ladder plunged repeatedly into her back, chest, legs and head”.
The victim, Egal’s 57-year-old wife, Maryan Ismail, was found partially naked on the floor of the couple’s blood-splattered lounge at their home in Edmonton, north London. She was a school cleaner.
A post-mortem revealed 68 sites of injuries over Ismail’s body, the Old Bailey heard, including multiple slash and stab wounds to her face, head and the entire length of her body, Ms Hunter said.
Egal provided a number of reasons for the attack – including that his wife had ordered him to leave their home and “die on the street” when he told her that he had contracted Covid-19. He told an officer: “I said I will kill you first, so I did.”
Jurors were told he allegedly warned police officers he had the virus when he was first taken into custody at Wood Green police station, warning them they should stay away from him.
But Ms Hunter told the court there was “no evidence” Egal “ever suffered from Covid” and that he “continued to refuse his blood to be tested”. The prosecutor also rejected his claim to have been mentally ill at the time.
He is also accused of washing a meat cleaver used in the attack, disposing of his wife's mobile phone and visiting the bank to transfer money to his daughter in Somalia, which Ms Hunter said signalled Egal’s intentions were to “cause [Ismail] the most serious harm imaginable”.
“His motive is something only he knows,” Ms Hunter said, adding the attack “bore all the hallmarks of temper and rage”.
Additional reporting by PA