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Afghan wife-killer says she came after him with a knife
Published on Wednesday October 31, 2012 Share on twitterShare on facebook
Peter Small
Courts Bureau
An Afghan immigrant who stabbed his wife and slit her throat has taken the stand in his defence, saying he feared for his safety when she came after him with a knife.
But Peer Khairi also testified at his second-degree murder trial Wednesday he totally lost control after his wife Randjida loudly insulted him, yelling he had no honour, was a cuckold and had *****s for a mother and sister.
“I could not take it any more,” Khairi told his lawyer, Christopher Hicks, through a Dari interpreter.
“She continued this swearing and then suddenly she grabbed the small knife and she came towards me,” Khairi said. “She would have stabbed me.”
Khairi said he grasped her wrist and wrestled the knife from her with his left hand while clutching her throat with his right, then stabbed her twice. “I was totally mad.”
Then he seized a bigger knife that was lying around, he said. “I grabbed it and put it to her throat, with no pressure, with little pressure.”
A pathologist has testified, however, the 53-year-old woman’s throat was cut down to the spine, which would have taken considerable force.
The five-foot-one, 86-pound woman was almost decapitated and died slowly choking on her own blood in the dining room of the couple’s West Mall highrise apartment on March 18, 2008.
Khairi said he had never before laid a hand on his wife of more than 30 years, though on three occasions she had joined her eldest son in beating him.
The illiterate former ambulance driver, who says he is 75 though his passport says he’s 65, broke down crying several times.
“I did not intend it,” he said. “I wish it was me who died . . . I am guilty in front of my own God.”
Speaking rapidly, often over the voice of the interpreter, Khairi said he tried to commit suicide several times when he lived in India and six times since coming to Canada, where he was plagued by unemployment and money problems. Often he would hear voices telling him to do himself in, he said.
He said he suffered from insomnia, yelled and screamed in the middle of the night and had memory loss.
He said a car accident he had on Highway 401 a few weeks before he killed his wife was a suicide attempt, contradicting a previous video statement in which he said he was rear-ended after his car suddenly lost power.
Khairi denied disapproving of his six children’s Western dress or social lives, contradicting testimony from other witnesses, including two of his four daughters. “I had a very good relationship with my children,” he said.
The Crown is to cross-examine Khairi Thursday
Afghan wife-killer says she came after him with a knife
Published on Wednesday October 31, 2012 Share on twitterShare on facebook
Peter Small
Courts Bureau
An Afghan immigrant who stabbed his wife and slit her throat has taken the stand in his defence, saying he feared for his safety when she came after him with a knife.
But Peer Khairi also testified at his second-degree murder trial Wednesday he totally lost control after his wife Randjida loudly insulted him, yelling he had no honour, was a cuckold and had *****s for a mother and sister.
“I could not take it any more,” Khairi told his lawyer, Christopher Hicks, through a Dari interpreter.
“She continued this swearing and then suddenly she grabbed the small knife and she came towards me,” Khairi said. “She would have stabbed me.”
Khairi said he grasped her wrist and wrestled the knife from her with his left hand while clutching her throat with his right, then stabbed her twice. “I was totally mad.”
Then he seized a bigger knife that was lying around, he said. “I grabbed it and put it to her throat, with no pressure, with little pressure.”
A pathologist has testified, however, the 53-year-old woman’s throat was cut down to the spine, which would have taken considerable force.
The five-foot-one, 86-pound woman was almost decapitated and died slowly choking on her own blood in the dining room of the couple’s West Mall highrise apartment on March 18, 2008.
Khairi said he had never before laid a hand on his wife of more than 30 years, though on three occasions she had joined her eldest son in beating him.
The illiterate former ambulance driver, who says he is 75 though his passport says he’s 65, broke down crying several times.
“I did not intend it,” he said. “I wish it was me who died . . . I am guilty in front of my own God.”
Speaking rapidly, often over the voice of the interpreter, Khairi said he tried to commit suicide several times when he lived in India and six times since coming to Canada, where he was plagued by unemployment and money problems. Often he would hear voices telling him to do himself in, he said.
He said he suffered from insomnia, yelled and screamed in the middle of the night and had memory loss.
He said a car accident he had on Highway 401 a few weeks before he killed his wife was a suicide attempt, contradicting a previous video statement in which he said he was rear-ended after his car suddenly lost power.
Khairi denied disapproving of his six children’s Western dress or social lives, contradicting testimony from other witnesses, including two of his four daughters. “I had a very good relationship with my children,” he said.
The Crown is to cross-examine Khairi Thursday
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