A controlling husband butchered his wife in their kitchen after he became overcome by a “jealous rage”, a court heard.
Ertan Ersoy, 51, is facing a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court having been charged with murdering his wife Dr Antonella Castelvedere, who worked at the University of Suffolk in Ipswich, in Colchester on June 1 last year.
A jury was told on Tuesday how Dr Castelvedere, 52, told a friend: “Unfortunately Ertan has fallen back into a dark state of mind and I fear for my safety.”
Christopher Paxton, prosecuting, said: “Within 24 hours Antonella lay dead on the kitchen floor in the family home she shared with her husband and their five-year-old daughter.”
Police and paramedics were called to their property in Wickham Road and found Dr Castelvedere, a professor at the University of Suffolk, had suffered 15 “sharp force” injuries.
The court heard one of those was a 15cm wound across Dr Castelvedere's neck which resulted in “severe blood loss, cardiac arrest and death”.
Emergency workers took Ersoy to hospital as he had suffered two “shallow wounds to the stomach”.
Mr Paxton said the couple’s marriage had been “unstable, volatile and rocky” and revealed they had been undertaking therapy together to improve it.
During their therapy sessions, Ersoy allegedly said he feared Dr Castelvedere could stab him as “she has got a problem with anger control.”
The prosecutor said: “This is the defendant setting up the lie he was later to tell those who attended the scene on June 1.”
He said Ersoy had installed a listening device in their home as he became “obsessed” with the idea his wife was cheating on him. Ersoy also searched for a private investigator on Google.
“That is why the defendant is controlling, jealous and possessive and that is what led to his savage attack upon his wife,” added Mr Paxton.
He said: “The defendant, we say, killed Antonella in an angry and jealous rage and that is why we say the defendant is guilty of murder.”
Ersoy, of Wickham Road, Colchester, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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