The owner of a Dublin alternative therapies clinic has told a jury in London that he could not accept that he had stabbed a young Co Wicklow woman to death.
Giving evidence for the first time, Christopher Newman (63) wept when asked whether he had killed Georgina Eager (28), whose body was found in her flat adjacent to the clinic in Walkinstown in May 2003.
Mr Newman, who practised in Dublin under the name of "Prof Saph Dean", told the court that he had started a personal relationship with Ms Eager within four days of her starting work at the clinic the previous July.
The jury yesterday was shown part of a video which Mr Newman had recorded of the couple on the night their relationship began in July 2002.
The prosecution has contended that Mr Newman murdered Ms Eager at the flat in Walkinstown and later fled to London. Mr Newman has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Mr Newman, an Indian-born British national, is being tried at the Inner London Crown Court under legislation which allows him to be tried in Britain for an offence allegedly committed in another jurisdiction. Asked by counsel for the defence Andrew Smiler whether he had murdered Ms Eager, Mr Newman replied: "No".
Mr Smiler: "Did you kill her?"
Mr Newman: "Every day I look at my hands."
Mr Smiler: "Did you accept those hands did kill her?"
Mr Newman: "I do not accept my hands killed her."
Mr Smiler: "We have heard that you stabbed her."
Mr Newman: "I cannot accept that I stabbed her."
Mr Smiler: "Did you kill Georgina?"
Mr Newman: "No."
Mr Newman said that originally he had not wanted to give her a job at the clinic. However, when she started a trial period, he found that she had an aptitude for the work and was anxious to learn. On her third day at the clinic, he had asked her out for dinner and their relationship had begun the following day.
Mr Newman said that with Ms Eager, he had broken his own rule about not having relationships with employees.
Asked why he had made the video, he said he was vulnerable and a little afraid. He indicated that another woman had previously told him that she thought she was pregnant and that this had startled him.
"If she told her parents or her boyfriend . . . in Ireland there is no messing around, it would destroy me completely."
He said that the following morning Ms Eager had said to him: "Don't worry, I will be here for you every day."
In the extract of the video shown to the jury, Mr Newman appeared naked while talking to Georgina of his love for her.
Mr Smiler said that the video was not being shown to the jury out of any disrespect to Ms Eager or her family.
However, he said the conversation on the tape clearly showed that she had been in a relationship with somebody else at the time when she had started seeing Mr Newman. He said that this had implications for statements made to the court by her friends as to her naivety.
In evidence, Mr Newman said that the month after the relationship began in August 2003, he had signed an affidavit to leave the clinic to her. He said that he had wanted to go to India to open a new institute.
Mr Smiler said that Ms Eager's friends had believed that it was odd for Mr Newman to offer to leave his clinic to Georgina. However, Mr Newman said that he believed that the "place" belonged to those who care for it.
The trial continues.