Dead man was 'gambling with fate', jury told in trial of woman accused of murdering her husband
A jury has been told that a man found dead in the kitchen of his estranged wife's home could have died accidentally, after hanging himself to “provoke a reaction”.
Amy Pugh, aged 34, is accused of killing Kyle Pugh in the kitchen of her home in Aston Drive, Newport, in March 2022.
Mrs Pugh denies murder and has told Stafford Crown Court that she found her estranged husband, who was 29 when he died, hanging from her back door from his belt.
A post-mortem examination revealed he died from "compression injuries" to his neck.
In closing the arguments for the defence on Friday (June 6), Mr Sam Robinson KC told the court that the death of Mr Pugh was not a “black-and-white” case as he said the prosecution had made out.
He said the first question the members of the jury should ask themselves was why “despite all the expert witness” and “all the evidence presented to the court", the prosecution “cannot explain how Mrs Pugh, a woman of 5ft 2in, was able to overpower and compress the neck of Kyle Pugh”.
“Could she really have held him in a chokehold for more than a minute? Could she really restrain him and stop him from fighting back?” he asked the jury.
