Jewish woman accused of murdering husband ‘loved and just wanted to take care of him’

They concluded that a stab wound to the retired joiner's chest and his middle finger were more characteristic of a fatal attack than an accident, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court has heard.

Giving evidence, Berman said she had felt “numb” after her husband’s “most horrendous accident” and she denied having any involvement in his death.

Michael Hayton KC, defending, asked her about an entry for that day on a calendar inside the couple’s home.

“It’s got ’Bye, bye’ two kisses and a heart,” Berman said.

“I put it on that day when everyone had gone and I was ready for bed.”

Berman then explained that she had also marked the anniversary of her mother and father’s death on the calendar.

The jury heard how she had come home to her husband after a shopping trip earlier that day.

She ate some lunch and he took her tray away before she heard him “stumble or slip” in the kitchen, she said.

She said she shouted, “David what’s wrong?” before hearing a second noise, “like a groan”.

“I just jumped up and screamed and ran in,” she said.

“I probably said something loudly.”

On entering the kitchen, Berman spotted Mr Berman face down and motionless on the floor “gurgling”.

Berman said she went into “shock” and was “screaming and shouting”.

She then dialled 999 and performed CPR until paramedics arrived shortly before 2pm.

Berman also phoned her husband’s son, named Daryl as well, and his daughter Debbie to tell them “there had been the most horrendous accident”.

Attempts were made to resuscitate Mr Berman, who’d gone into cardiac arrest, but he was pronounced dead around 40 minutes later.

Asked by Hayton how she had felt, Berman replied: “I was numb. I think I possibly knew he never survived but to hear it totally floored me.

“I collapsed inwards really.”

Berman told the jury that she had later cradled her husband as his body lay on the kitchen floor because she wanted her “last moments with him”.

She denied having the knife in her hand in the kitchen, arguing with Mr Berman or “killing” him.

Earlier, she told the jury how Mr Berman had carried on working until he was 84 before realising he didn’t have the strength to continue.

His health had declined, she said, and he had become a “lot frailer” and unsteady on his feet, meaning he used a walking stick.

She said he her husband had suffered previous falls, undergone two hip procedures and become “more forgetful”.

But she added: “I loved him and just wanted to take care of him.”

Previously, jurors heard how paramedics found Mr Berman on the kitchen floor, with a tray, a 12cm long paring knife and a broken plate next to him.

When police were arrived, Berman told them: “You don’t think I’ve murdered him do you?”

Although one officer deemed the death suspicious, they accepted her version of events that he had died after falling in the kitchen.

In the aftermath, the jury heard, members of his family noticed how “matter of fact” and “emotionless” Berman appeared.

Two forensic pathologists later conducted separate post-mortems on Mr Berman.

One, Dr Philip Lumb, found that an accidental fall was “very unlikely” to have caused the fatal chest wound, which was characteristic of a fatal attack with a bladed weapon.

His opinion was echoed by Dr Christopher Johnson, who dismissed the possibility the injury was caused by accident and found it was “entirely” typical of a homicidal stab wound.

Mr Berman was also deemed to have suffered a “defensive” wound to his middle finger, typical when someone attempts to fend off an attack with a sharp weapon.

But the jury also heard from retired forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd, who has examined evidence in a string of high-profile cases, including the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks, and the deaths of both Diana, Princess of Wales, and Stephen Lawrence.

Shepherd described the wound as being “extremely unusual, atypical” for a domestic stabbing and said Mr Berman’s death was more likely an accident, though he could not exclude homicide.

Berman denies murder and the trial continues.