Daughter thought dad was strangling mum – until she saw knife and blood, court heard

A young woman has told a court how she thought her father was strangling her mother before she saw the knife in his hand and blood pouring from her head. Hanna Zefi told Truro Crown Court how she and her friend Katie Cook rushed into the room where her mother Natalie was staying after hearing her scream, only to find her father on top of her mother apparently strangling her.

Petrit Zefi, 44, faces one charge of attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding his wife, Natalie Zefi, in connection with an incident on November 11 last year. He denies both charges.

On the second day of his trial today (Wednesday, May 8), his daughter took to the witness stand and recounted the events of that evening. Giving evidence from behind a screen, the eldest of the couple’s four children said she, her mother, father and younger sister Lola were staying with family friend Katie Cook in Newquay at the time.

Read more: Teenager arrested with kitchen knife in Cornish town

Read more: Disabled victim robbed in his own home by man he wanted to help

Hanna told the court she was in Katie’s bedroom that evening when the pair were about to watch a boxing match on TV. She said the bedroom door was open and they could see the comings and goings in the hallway in the reflection on the closet mirror. She said her father was seen walking into the kitchen a few times before opening the door to the room she and Katie were in, bidding them good night and closing the door behind him.

The court heard from Hanna that closing the door was really unusual as all the doors tended to be open in Katie’s house. She told the court: “15 seconds after my dad closed the door I heard my mum call my name three times. Katie and I left the room and went into her room. My father was above my mother. It looked like he was being strangled Katie grabbed him and twisted him and pushed him onto the sofa.

“I looked at my mother. She said “he stabbed me, he stabbed me”. She was lying on the bed and blood was pouring from her head. I looked at my father after my mother shouted “he stabbed me”. hand and I saw that he had a knife”.

Hanna said that at that point, as Katie tried to disarm Zefi, she ran to her father, who the court heard was drunk and under the influence of cocaine, to help keep him calm.

Click here to join CornwallLive on WhatsApp and we’ll send you breaking news and top stories straight to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and advertising from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out anytime you want. If you are curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

She told the court that because she couldn’t get him to drop the knife, she bit his hand and eventually dropped the knife in the hallway. Meanwhile, her mother Natalie and younger sister managed to get into Katie’s room with Katie, who also called an ambulance.

Hanna said she later pulled her father out of the house and told the court he kept shouting “he cheated on me, he cheated on me”. Zefi eventually left the house and police were called to the property by paramedics, including armed officers, which is standard when dealing with a stabbing or violent crime.

Zefi, of Station Road in Bugle, near St Austell, was located in a nearby pub around an hour later and arrested by armed officers and put into a van. Video footage of the arrest from body-worn body cameras was shown to the jury today.

Katie Cook also took the witness stand. She told the court she befriended Natalie when her children attended the school where she worked in the Newquay area and through the friendship invited her to stay at her home and see it as a “safe place” for her and the children her at times when her marriage with Zefi was going through difficulties.

Join CornwallLive on WhatsApp and be the first to hear what’s happening near you

She said her two children were not at home that night. She told the court that on the occasions when Zefi stayed there, he was always respectful of her space and “was aware of the boundaries” and knew not to drink too much or have loud arguments there.

Katie told the court she came home from work on the evening of November 10 and Zefi was already drunk. She also described how she and Hanna heard Natalie’s screams and rushed into the room where she was with Lola. And she said that she thought at first that Zefi was strangling Natalie and how she tried to get him off her.

“I walked up to him and put my arm around his waist and turned him around to separate them,” she told the court. “At that moment I saw the knife in his right hand.”

Barrister Rowan Jenkins asked her where the knife came from, which was also shown to the jury. Katie said it was “the sharpest knife in the world” referring to the sharpest knife in the kitchen knife block. She said that once Natalie and Lola were out of the bedroom and the knife was gone, she went back into the room where Zefi and his daughter Hanna were.

“I screamed at him ‘How dare you do that?’ Katie said. “I was so angry and petrified at the same time. I was shocked. Petrit kept shouting ‘he lied to me.’

She added: “We called the ambulance because we didn’t know how deep Natalie’s injuries were. Petrit said “no police, no police”. He was leaving the house and Hanna took him out.”

Detective Constable Simon Murray, the officer on the case from Devon and Cornwall Police, told the court that the knife taken from Katie’s home was missing its tip. The first day of the trial heard that the tip of the knife was lodged in Natalie’s skull following the incident.

DC Murray said several units were called to the area after paramedics reported the incident. He said: “The call was recorded that a man had stabbed his wife in the head.”

The process continues.