Wife of fatally stabbed removal man from Ilford gives evidence at murder trial

The wife of a man who died after he was fatally knifed did not want her husband’s alleged attacker to be prosecuted, a court heard on Friday.

Being cross-examined at Snaresbrook Crown Court at the trial of Marcel Crihan, 34, of Hickling Road, Ilford, was the wife of Florin Onea, 49, of the same address, who died nine days after police found him with a stab wound at their home on Saturday, October 17, last year.

Peter Doyle, defending, accused Lavinia Onea of fabricating parts of witness statements given to police after she had initially told them her husband was “attacked from behind” with a vodka bottle.

She cited the shock of the incident and her poor English for the conflicting statements.

Mrs Onea, who runs a cleaning business, said her husband was stabbed in the head with a vodka bottle during a “fracas” in garden when both men were facing off.

Officers later found Mr Onea stabbed in the chest – during an incident Mrs Onea claims she did not see.

Mr Doyle asked: “It’s nothing to do with painting the defendant in the worst possible light?”

“No,” replied Mrs Onea.

“At the hospital when I didn’t know what the outcome would be I said we didn’t want to prosecute him [Mr Crihan] but the officer said he has to pay for it.”

Mr Doyle also accused Mrs Onea of lying about her husband searching the internet and coming across articles suggesting the defendant had legal issues around fighting in Romania.

He also accused her of lying about confessions made by Mr Crihan, who allegedly told Mrs Onea that he would become violent when he drank alcohol.

“He [Mr Onea] must have been very unhappy at the light of these confessions,” said Mr Doyle.

Mrs Onea said: “We discussed [it] with him [Mr Crihan] and saw that he wanted to get better and be on the right way. Marcel wanted to better himself [and] we trusted him.”

Mr Doyle asked why she had not told police about these confessions, to which she replied, “perhaps I’m not good at giving statements”.

He then went onto suggest that there was never an internet search and that the confessions were “invented”.

“You made it up,” he said.

Mrs Onea replied: “No, he confessed many times.”

The defence counsel suggested that Mrs Onea had not witnessed the alleged bottling either.

Mr Doyle said: “You didn’t see it – [that] is the explanation for your different accounts of the attack that we have explored this morning.”

“I was there, I know what I saw,” replied Mrs Onea.

Also giving evidence was neighbour Ali Khan, who saw fighting from his bedroom window.

“I heard shouting and screaming,” he said. “I had a look outside I saw people having an argument in that house.

“I saw person two [a man] holding a knife and waving it at him [another man].

“That’s when I phoned the police.”

Mr Crihan denies the charges. The trial continues.