Wife of Navy officer saw their stolen car crush him to death

THE wife of a former Royal Navy office wept as she told police how she saw her husband killed when he was run over twice by car thieves.

Jessica Samwell, 34, sobbed as she described how she rushed downstairs to see her husband Mike, 35, with the rear wheels of his car across his chest.

Mrs Samwell then described how the £35,000 Audi reversed over Mr Samwell before driving over him again to escape the scene of the robbery.

A Manchester Crown Court jury saw two video recorded interviews with Jessica about the death of her husband outside the couple’s home in Chorlton, Manchester on April 23 this year.

The court was told that Mr Samwell, a former lieutenant on Royal Navy nuclear submarines, died from crush injuries after trying to stop thieves stealing his car.

Ryan Gibbons, 28, from Chorlton, admits being the driver of the stolen car but denies murder and manslaughter. Raymond Davies, 21, also from Chorlton, also denies manslaughter.

Mrs Samwell told police that the couple were woken in the early hours of the morning by a noise and Mr Samwell had rushed downstairs dressed only in his underpants to investigate.

She said: “He was running downstairs and I was grabbing my phone to dial 999. I could hear Mike shouting ‘oi, oi, no, oi, oi - not the f---ing car.’

“I was shouting ‘Mike, Mike, stop, what are you doing? ‘ I was trying to ring the police. I was thinking ‘this is really serious’ but I did not know what was happening.”

Mrs Samwell said she then went out onto the decking overlooking the car parking space at the rear of the house to see her husband injured.

She said: “Mike was on the floor. Half of the wheels were on his chest in the middle. The car then reversed leaving Mike between the two sets of wheels. Then the car drove back over Mike and sped off. I was running toward him but my brain could not get hold of what was happening. I got to him and he had tyre marks across his chest - kind of diagonally.

“There was blood coming out of the back of his head and he was making like a gurgling noise. “He was making an awful noise and I was shouting ‘help, help, somebody help me’.

“I think a lady came up and she was talking to the police. I was thinking ‘Oh my God, what has happened? How did he get there? How did he manage to get under them? What then hell is going on?’”

Jessica told the police in the video interview: “I was shouting ‘help me, help me, somebody help me’. I was just telling him that I loved him and held his hand.”

Gibbons of Chorlton denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter but admits burglary and the aggravated taking of a vehicle without the owner’s consent.

Davies, also of Chorlton, denies manslaughter and the aggravated taking of a vehicle but admits burglary.

Gibbons’s girlfriend Stacey Hughes, 28, of Chorlton denies assisting an offender. Two unknown men thought to be part of the plan to steal the car are still being hunted by police. The trial continues.