Xmas DaY sTab DEaTh ‘accIDENT’

Accused had man’s baby two days later

A MUM accused of murdering her partner in a knife attack two days before she gave birth to their daughter told a court it was an accident.

Adriana Ciurar said she had pushed Samoila Stoica with a knife in her hand after he grabbed her by the hair while she was doing the washing-up.

The 25-year-old told the High Court in Edinburgh Stoica, 25, had grabbed her hair on Christmas Day in 2019 at their flat in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

She said: “I was just so scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen. When he held my hair I was so scared I turned my back to face him and I pushed him to go away. I pushed with my hands. I have got the knife in my hand washing the knife,” she said. “I don’t know how it happened.

“I swear on my life. I never wanted to. I was ready to give birth to my baby.”

The Romanian added: “I never ever wanted to do that to him. I am so sorry for this. I have to live with this my whole life.”

Ciurar told the court she put the knife in the sink and went to get a towel for his chest. She added: “I said, ‘Please don’t go. Stay here. I am so sorry’.”

She then contacted his cousin to come to the house and to call an ambulance.

Ciurar said the couple had rowed in the past and on one occasion in Dublin he had punched her in the face. She phoned her brother who came and collected her and took her to Northern Ireland.

She said Stoica contacted her and bought her a ticket to travel to Scotland where he was and she came to join him.

She said: “I was pregnant and I wanted the relationship to work. I wanted my daughter to have a father.”

She denies murdering Stoica by stabbing him on the body with a knife. She was earlier acquitted of a further charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The trial before Lord Boyd of Duncansby continues.