- Says he was hallucinating – ‘my heart was beating making me think I was going to die. I woke up the next morning and walked past the kitchen where I saw my wife’
A dad on trial for murder after stabbing his half-naked wife to death in their kitchen has changed his plea to guilty on day two of a bombshell court trial.
Conrad Iyayi stood accused of attacking and killing semi-naked Katy Harris in the kitchen of their Derby semi-detached property in what the prosecution called ‘a brutal and needless killing’ in February, 2022.
At Derby Crown Court today (Weds) he changed his formerly not guilty plea, admitting his role in her murder. The attack took place whilst their son slept upstairs at the home.
Yesterday, the case was opened at Derby Crown Court, the jury of eight women and four men heard two 999 calls the 46-year-old accused made to the police shortly before 7.30am on February 6, last year.
In the first he said: ‘Just get the police here straight away. Get the police here, I have killed somebody.’
Asked who he has killed, Iyayi replies: ‘My wife.’
After Iyayi was arrested he gave a prepared statement to the police in which he said he had bought what he believed was methadone online through the dark web which he ingested sometime after 10.30pm on February 5, last year, and realised it was not what he thought it was.
He said: ‘I was hallucinating, my heart was beating making me think I was going to die. I woke up the next morning and walked past the kitchen where I saw my wife.
‘What I thought was a dream must have been reality and I contacted the police. I had no intention of harming Kathryn, prior to this incident we’d had a nice evening cooking together and watching TV.’
Shortly after the court assembled today, around 1pm, Iyayi changed his plea to guilty.
Judge Shaun Smith KC has adjourned the sentence until August 18 and called into question whether the dad could remember the attack, or not.
He said: ‘Mr Iyayi, I don’t know whether or not you can or cannot remember what happened that evening. I know from my own experience that very often, even though someone has done something really bad, they say they can’t remember and people are sceptical.
‘If you can remember what you did or why you did it obviously that’s going to help but if you can’t you can’t, it’s as simple as that.’
