Tonight:
5°c
The senior City banker accused of strangling his wife admitted to police that he had given her “a decent shove” as the couple argued on the night of her death.
Neil Ellerbeck told how he had struggled with his wife Kate at their home in Enfield. He said he was defending himself as she struck and kicked him.
He admitted he also used a bear hug and a judo throw to subdue her. “She was very violent and very, very strong, surprisingly,” he said.
She had a bloody lip and marks on her face but was alive when he left the house to pick up their daughter after a school exam, he told detectives after his arrest. When he returned to the house he found his wife slumped on the floor and called 999. Paramedics later pronounced her dead.
Ellerbeck, 46, chief investment manager for HSBC at Canary Wharf, is said to have killed his wife, afraid that a divorce would cost him half his fortune.
The Old Bailey has already heard that Mrs Ellerbeck, 45, was having an affair with their children's tennis coach. Her husband was also in a relationship with another woman.
In transcripts of his police interviews read to the jury today, he said that on the day she died they had had “the usual arguments” about their children's education, which continued upstairs. “She said why don't you take the hint, why are you still here? If you don't go I may just divorce you. I've spoken to a friend, we're getting a divorce.'
“I went to leave the bedroom. She lurched forward, grabbed my wrist and said: You are not leaving this time, don't ignore me.' I snatched my arm away. She grabbed it again, I snatched it away and pushed her aside so I could get out of the room, I gave her a decent shove and she stumbled back a bit and ended up sitting on the end of the bed.”
Ellerbeck said he turned away and “felt her hitting the back of my head and shoulders.” Mrs Ellerbeck was dumped “on her backside” which prompted her to “lunge forward and lash out at me,” he went on. He then pushed her on the carpet as she continued to struggle.
“She is wriggling and kicking. I was trying to hold her off by her shoulders, her arms and her face at one point,” he continued. “I pushed with the heel of my hand quite hard to her face and made a connection with her chin.”
Ellerbeck was getting tired but he said his wife was still “very violent” and he tried to lie on top of her “not to smother her but stop her coming at me”.
They broke off and Mrs Ellerbeck looked in the mirror and told him: “Look what you have done now, that's nice.' She was almost glad she had a mark.” When he went downstairs she attacked him again, he said. Putting her to the ground “ a bit like judo” she was “seething and gritting her teeth,” he said.
When he left to collect his daughter his wife was “very pale, breathing very quickly and trying to pant”. “I said: I'm going, are you coming?' She said p*** off, not now you've done this to me.'”
When he met his daughter she said: You have got a mark.' I said it was an accident.'” When Ellerbeck returned to the house he said Kate was lying face down. “I shouted her name, I shook her, I rolled her over, she was very pale and didn't look good.”
Ellerbeck, of Enfield, has pleaded not guilty to murder in November last year.
The trial continues.
