Mark Campbell, the casino entrepreneur accused of murdering his wife, Aristocrat Europe executive Olga Pleguezuelos, broke down in the witness box yesterday, saying: "I never wanted to hurt my love".
Campbell (54) stabbed the 35-year-old in the head and neck after she started a relationship with another man. She had begun a new job in Las Vegas but was flying back to London to see him.
He told the jury at the Old Bailey that she had said she was “confused” about their relationship but he was confident they could resolve their problems and stay together.
He broke down in the witness stand when he was shown a photograph of the flat taken before his wife arrived, decked out by himself with love hearts and special pictures on the walls. He burst into tears and slumped forward.
With his head buried in the folder of pictures, he said: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt my love. How could I? I killed the person I love.” The case was adjourned to give him time to recover and Campbell was led back to the dock in tears. He could still be heard wailing as he was taken to the cells.
The court heard that hours before the killing he had read a text message on his wife’s phone from another man which demonstrated “a degree of intimacy” between them. Campbell attacked Miss Pleguezuelos in bed at the marital home in Harrow-on-the-Hill in the early hours of October 19 last year.
He told jurors he was “100 per cent supportive” when she got the job in Las Vegas in August last year and planned to move there to be with her. For his birthday in September he said she gave him a volume of love poems and a book entitled “The Love of My Life”.
He said: “Everything was perfect, as good as it had ever been. I could not have been happier.” But in the week before she was due to visit him in London, Miss Pleguezuelos told him of her worries in an online Skype conversation, where they could each see each other on their computer screens.
He said: “The conversation started very normally then suddenly Olga lowered her head on the screen and started talking in a very low voice.” He said she told him she was “getting confused feelings” and added: “I love you but I am not in love with you.”
Mr Campbell admits manslaughter but denies murder. The trial continues.
