Ertan Ersoy suspected wife was cheating, court told

Ertan Ersoy, who is charged with murdering his wife at their home in Wickham Road last year, had previously told Mahmut Bektas, who, like him, was Turkish and living in Colchester, about his “difficulties with his wife”.

Christopher Paxton KC, prosecuting, asked Mr Bektas if Ersoy, 51, had raised any suspicions about his 52-year-old wife, Dr Antonella Castelvedere.

“He did mention he’s suspecting his wife might be cheating on him,” Mr Bektas, who was assisted in court by a Turkish interpreter, told Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Tragic - Antonella Castelvedere was found dead in the home she lived in with husband Ertan Ersoy (Image: University of Suffolk)

He said that, during their meeting, the defendant was “mainly” talking about his issues with his wife.

Mr Bektas added he met Dr Castelvedere in March 2022 and she said she was “not happy”.

Dr Castelvedere wrote to Mr Bektas on May 31, in a message read to the court by the prosecutor.

She said: “Ertan has fallen back into a dark state of mind and I fear for my safety.”

Ignazia Posadinu, a senior lecturer at Essex University, told the court the couple met online and they married within “three months or so of knowing each other”.

She said that, around six months before her death, Dr Castelvedere, an English and creative writing lecturer at the University of Suffolk, asked to meet.

“She told me she had been living in hell for a year and a half,” said Ms Posadinu. “She said it had been a very terrible situation.”

Emergency - police officers guarded the couple's property in Wickham Road, Colchester (Image: Newsquest)

She said Dr Castelvedere had said her husband “was drinking and smoking” and “was getting frustrated with work and sometimes he would be verbally violent and also smash things around”.

Asked by the prosecutor if she suspected Ersoy hit Dr Castelvedere, she said: “No, I asked her.”

She said he called his wife “all sorts of names”.

Dr Castelvedere was found stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of the couple’s home in Colchester on June 1 last year.

Ersoy denies murder but has admitted manslaughter.

The trial continues.