Black Widow: Yes, my husband may have been murdered... but not by me
Ex-stripper claims hit and run plot is smear by victim’s ‘jealous brother’
A FORMER stripper accused of murdering her wealthy British husband as they celebrated their first wedding anniversary in Ukraine has launched an extraordinary attack on his grieving family.
Relatives of IT consultant Barry Pring told a coroner’s court last week they believe internet bride Anna Ziuzina arranged his brutal death to seize his £1.5million inheritance.
Mr Pring, 47, was tricked into standing by a busy dual carriageway following a boozy dinner with his wife and was killed instantly in an 80mph hit-and-run by a car carrying stolen number-plates.
Now in her account of the shocking event, revealed for the first time, Miss Ziuzina, 38, has denied killing her husband and accused Mr Pring’s brother Shaughan – who has led the family’s campaign for justice – of being motivated by ‘jealousy’. She also vowed to be ‘a splinter’ in his side.
Ukrainian-born Miss Ziuzina, who has now changed her name to Julianna Moore, lives in a villa in Marbella with another wealthy British businessman. The couple have a three-year-old daughter.
In her colourful blog, unearthed by The Mail on Sunday, she vents her fury at Mr Pring’s family and the British authorities while protesting her innocence over the death of her husband in February 2008. Written in stilted English and Russian, it gives a revealing insight into the enigmatic brunette who so captivated Mr Pring.
At one stage she declares: ‘It was a murder. I would be happy if this person would be found and brought to a criminal responsibility!’
On Mr Pring’s brother, she says: ‘I think Saughan [sic] always envied Barry. Barry was highly educated, with several university degrees. He had a successful business although he was not a tycoon. Saughan and Barry never were close.
‘He [Shaughan] is outraged and this war became personal for him. He told that to one of local newspapers: “I’m like a dog chasing a bone”. But I’m not a bone and no one should chase me. But I am a splinter for him to get rid of. I am tired of harassment and intrusions in my personal life, of the lies, smear and unreasonable accusations. After all, nobody cancelled presumption of innocence.’
Turning to the fateful night, she blames alcohol for the ‘accident’.
‘There can be nothing more horrible in life. When a person dies – so close and dear to heart – and you are taken to interrogation. It is very dif- ficult for me to write this but if we haven’t drunk that much, we would be able to think clearly, we wouldn’t go to the highway and Barry would be alive today.
‘I moved away just for several meters when I heard a noise behind my back, like a blast. I can’t describe the rest of it… it is just beyond me to live that horror again. For many
‘Anna is an extremely manipulative person’
hours after that I was in shock.’ Miss Ziuzina claimed that after the incident she was treated at a psychiatric clinic and made several suicide attempts. ‘ I was sure that it was the darkest day of my life… and I was mistaken. I was yet to live through a chain of those days.’
She also insisted: ‘There is no crime without motive and I had none. I lost everything I dreamt of when my husband died: family, business, respectable life. And what is most crucial – I lost the loving and the loved one. I had no motive to kill my husband.’
Shortly afterwards, she wrote in the 2012 blog: ‘I cannot definitely say whether it was a road traffic accident or murder. I cannot say with certainty whether he had deadly enemies. I know for a fact only one thing, I have nothing to do with an incident.’
Mr Pring, originally from Devon, owned five properties and was worth an estimated £1.5million. His assets are currently frozen under a High Co Court order. Shaughan Pring told Th The Mail on Sunday: ‘Barry was trick tricked into standing in that road. That’s what the coroner said. Who else co could have tricked him? Anna is an ext extremely manipulative person. She’s been doing it most of her adult life. Manipulating people for money.’
Greater Devon coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland said Mr Pring, his guard lowered through drinking, was unlawfully killed and had been ‘tricked’ into standing on the road.
Mr Pring’s mother Irene told the court: ‘We are sure that Ganna [sic] had some involvement in Barry’s death to get an inheritance.’
The death was initially investigated by Ukrainian authorities as an accident but reclassified as murder in 2011 amid concerns from his family that Mr Pring was the victim of a contract killing. Nikolay Zhukovich, chief of Kiev regional police, admitted for the first time that police sought evidence against his widow but found nothing suspicious.
Miss Ziuzina declined to comment from her £700,000 Marbella home. Her partner, businessman Ivan Lister, said: ‘It’s all very unfair but we’re not saying anything because we haven’t had legal advice yet.’