Murder accused John Lizanec has told a jury how he left his wife lying on the floor of their bathroom after she cut her own throat.
The 49-year-old took to the stand in his own defence on the seventh day of his murder trial.
He denies allegations he murdered his wife Michelle at their former family home in Inchture on February 13 2021.
Lizanec told jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh, on the day she died, he arrived in their bathroom to see her with “something silver” in her hand, which she used on her own neck.
He said he “freaked out” and left the house after changing his clothes, leaving her on the bathroom floor.
Something silver
The court heard Mrs Lizanec had moved into a new home in Scone – acquired secretly – and Lizanec stayed at his eldest daughter Sophie’s home in Elie, near St Andrews, for about two weeks.
On February 13, Lizanec, his wife and Sophie went shopping for Valentine’s gifts.
Later, Mrs Lizanec drove her husband back to his home in Inchture.
Lizanec said he put shopping away while his wife went to check on the gas reader.
“A minute or two later, she went away into the bathroom.
“She said she was looking for something.
“Then I heard a noise. I can’t explain it. It didn’t sound like a good noise.”
Lizanec said he went into the ground-floor bathroom and saw his wife.
“She was standing there with something silver in her hand.
“I saw it going up towards her neck.
“She was facing into the cupboard.”
Lizanec added: “I had a very good idea what it was in her hand.
“I grabbed hold of her and I just remember screaming ‘No’.”
He said he turned his wife around and saw “there was blood everywhere”.
Lizanec continued: “She wasn’t breathing or nothing. She was as white as a sheet.
“I sat her down and checked for a pulse. There was nothing.
“I turned her round and lay her down as gently as I could.
“I just sat and cried.”
‘Freaked out’
After “what seemed like forever,” Lizanec said: “I think I gave her a kiss and I closed her eyes. I didn’t know what to do.”
He claimed he “freaked out” when he saw himself drenched in blood.
Jurors heard he next ripped off his jumper and jeans, removed his trainers and dumped them on the bathroom floor.
He got changed and left the house.
Asked by solicitor advocate Iain Paterson why he did not call police or an ambulance, he replied: “I don’t know.”
Mr Paterson asked if had cut his wife’s throat, Lizanec replied: “No. If I did something like that, I couldn’t live with myself.
“I loved her. I didn’t hate her.”
‘Everything I had worked for was gone’
Lizanec earlier told the jury he had met his wife when he was 17 and she was 16.
They lived in Dundee, Perth, Abernethy and Bridge of Earn before moving to Inchture.
The court heard Mrs Lizanec had moved out of the Orchard Way marital home in early January 2020.
Asked by Mr Paterson how he felt after his wife left, he said: “The best way I can describe it was that my heart had been ripped out of my chest, because everything I had worked for was gone.”
Earlier in the day, the jury heard how a crucifix Lizanec habitually wore was found underneath his dead wife’s body when police discovered her in their home.
Charges denied
Lizanec denies murdering his wife by striking her on the neck with a knife, having previously shown “malice and ill-will” towards her, on February 13 2021.
It is further alleged he hid her body inside a cupboard, cleaned blood off himself, changed his clothes and footwear and fled the scene.
He faces a further charge of engaging in an abusive course of behaviour against his wife between April 1 2019 and February 13 2021 at their then-homes in Chaise Road, Bridge of Earn, and Orchard Way, Inchture.
Armed police on Balunie Street, where Lizanec is accused of barricading himself inside his mother’s home.
And it is alleged he behaved in a threatening or abusive way at his mother’s house in Balunie Street, Dundee, by barricading himself inside while armed with a knife on February 14.
The trial before Lord Fairley continues.
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