Man describes moments leading up to stabbing his wife

A man accused of stabbing his wife to death on a petrol station forecourt described in court today the moments leading up to her death.

Emani Tinoa'i, 49, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Moliga Tinoa'i at a petrol station in the Wellington suburb of Johnsonville, in March last year.

Tinoa'i, speaking in the High Court at Wellington with the help of an interpreter, told the jury how he lost control in the moments just prior to the stabbing saying that he had never felt that way at any time in his life prior to the incident.

He said he began to suspect his wife was having an affair as early as 2007 and said their relationship was becoming more and more strained in the period leading up to the stabbing.

He said he thought his suspicions were confirmed after he found what he thought to be a "love bite" while his wife was taking a shower on the night prior to the incident.

Tinoa'i told the jury that on the night of his wife's death he waited with knife in hand in her car for her to finish work at a rest home in suburban Khandhallah,

He said he hoped to "force her to tell me the truth" about her infidelity.

He did not plan to kill her.

After she finished work he said that he tried to force her to drive home so that they could discuss their problems.

He lost control when she resisted his efforts to go home and instead went to the petrol station.

He said his wife asked him to "let me go and do whatever I want to do" as she tried to leave the vehicle.

It was as his wife was trying to leave the vehicle that he lost control and proceeded to stab her, he said.

He then followed her from the vehicle and stabbed her.

Tinoa'i told the court he then considered taking his own life.

Earlier he told the court that he was a family man who loved his wife and two adopted children and had worked hard to provide the family with their own home and nice furniture.

The defence argues Tinoa'i was provoked into losing control by his wife's infidelity and is therefore not guilty of murder.

- NZPA