A wife accused of murdering her husband broke down in tears as she asked jurors: 'Why would I do that to the man I love?'
Background of the Case
Daryl Berman, who turned 72 on Wednesday (June 17), is accused of murdering David Berman, 84, at their home on Butterstile Lane, Prestwich in March last year. It is alleged she deliberately stabbed her husband in the chest 'for a reason known only to her'.
She told police her husband's injuries, and death, were 'accidental', jurors have been told. She said he fell over in the kitchen and landed on a 'little paring knife' she had used for her lunch, a court heard.
Court Proceedings
Mrs Berman has pleaded not guilty and is on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court. Jurors previously heard Mr Berman's death was initially treated as an accident by police. Mrs Berman called emergency services at 1.55pm on March 13 last year, it was said.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics, he was pronounced dead at their home less than an hour later, the court heard. Mr Michael Brady said that after another doctor was 'troubled' by the injury, a pathologist was called in. They concluded the stab wound had 'typical features of a homicide', jurors were told.
Daryl Berman's Testimony
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Mrs Berman was asked by her barrister Michael Hayton KC: 'Did you stab him to death in March last year?'
'No, I didn't,' Mrs Berman quietly replied. She told the jury she was born in Manchester and raised in Salford. While her mum didn't work, her dad was a textile merchant and was 'wealthy', she said.
She had worked in a fine arts shop, then as a dental nurse before working in the fashion industry in a wholesale showroom. She had been married before, and was divorced at 25, she said. She said she met Mr Berman on a blind date when she was 40.
The court has heard the couple's marriage was 'loving and mutually supportive' and that there was no record of domestic violence or involvement with police. Mrs Berman was described as a 'very supportive and loving wife'.
Describing her husband, who was a self-employed joiner by trade up until the months before his death, she said: 'He was very kind, very stubborn, and a lovely guy. Nobody had a bad word to say about him. We were each other's interests and we had a dog. We went everywhere with the dog. We travelled.'
The Day of the Incident
Mrs Berman told jurors that on the morning of March 13, she had been into Manchester city centre shopping whilst Mr Berman had been to a soft play centre with his daughter and great-granddaughter. She said she had left homemade soup and bread next to the microwave in the kitchen for him.
He had arrived home before her and was sitting in the 'sunroom' towards the back of the house, watching TV, jurors heard. 'I got back home and gave him a kiss and said 'hello, how are you, have you eaten?'. I went into the kitchen and made myself something to eat,' she said.
She said she brought her lunch, an open chicken salad sandwich, into the room on a tray, alongside a 'little knife' and a fork. She said it was sharper than a normal knife to 'cut through the cucumber and tomato so it wouldn't squish all over the place'.
'We were talking generally, he said he'd enjoyed watching the kids play and how lovely it was,' Mrs Berman said. 'David then left the room, I think he offered to take my tray and said 'are you cold?' because he knew I was cold. He said 'I'll take it, darling', and took himself to the kitchen.'
'He wanted me to be comfortable. He liked to do things for me as I liked to do things for him. He went to the kitchen, and I heard a stumble or a trip. I immediately said: 'David, what's wrong?''
'He said 'I'm okay', then I heard a sound like a slump or something and a groan and I went quickly into the kitchen.'
Breaking down in tears, she added: 'He was face down on the floor. I was saying 'David, David', and dashed to him. He was lying face down, and I could see globules of liquid. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked like gravy, but we don't have gravy in the house. I must have realised it was blood.'
Mrs Berman said she called 999, and ran to open the front door to allow easy access. The operator advised her to turn her husband over to perform CPR. She told jurors she didn't know how she would get him onto his back as he was a 'big man'.
She said that after paramedics began to arrive, she was told to leave the kitchen. Mrs Berman said she then began to call family members, telling them words to the effect of 'there is no easy way to say this, there has been an accident, the paramedics are here, you need to get here as soon as possible'.
Asked how she felt after being told he had died, she wept: 'I was scrambling, I didn't know what I was doing. I went into the kitchen on quite a few occasions because I just wanted to be with David. I took the sheet off his face and lay down next to him and cradled his head and told him I loved him.'
'I didn't want to leave him, I wanted to lie next to him. It was the last thing I could do.'
Cross-Examination
'The suggestion is that you murdered your husband of 27 years, did you?,' Mr Hayton said. 'Why would I do that to the man I love? No,' Mrs Berman replied.
'How do you explain how he came to die?,' the barrister asked. 'I have absolutely no idea, I wasn't in the room.'
In cross examination by Mr Brady, he said: 'Are you lying to this jury?'
'No, I'm not... everything I have said is the truth,' she replied.
'Because you stabbed him and you are responsible for his death?' the prosecutor said. 'No I would never do that to the man I loved. It was the worst day of my life,' Mrs Berman added.
Mrs Berman, of Butterstile Lane, Prestwich, denies murder.
