Bingley man tells jury how he killed partner (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Delivery driver tells court he feels ‘guilty and ashamed’ for causing girlfriend's death

7:00am Tuesday 16th October 2012 in News By Jenny Loweth, T&A Reporter

A delivery driver told a murder trial his girlfriend fell face down on the kitchen floor after he slipped while pulling her arm.

Santosh Kumar said he did not mean to hurt Samantha Warren badly when he flew into a jealous rage and attacked her.

Kumar has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the mother-of-three who died of a brain injury three days after the assault at her home in Libbey Street, Manningham, Bradford, on April 26.

He denies murdering Miss Warren, 33, a care worker, who suffered bruises, broken bones and fatal bleeding on the brain.

Kumar, 43, of Crosley Wood Road, Bingley, told Bradford Crown Court yesterday he felt “guilty and ashamed” about causing Miss Warren’s death.

He had been drinking brandy when he assaulted her after finding out she had disobeyed him by using a garage run by a man he thought she was “messing about” with.

“I started calling her a slag and accusing her of seeing him,” he said.

He slapped her hard across the face and kicked a foot spa, spilling water on the kitchen floor.

Kumar said Miss Warren raised a cereal bowl above her head and he thought she was going to hit him.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her but slipped on the wet floor.

Miss Warren fell over the top of him and landed face first.

He turned her round, grabbed her throat and slapped her hard three times.

Kumar said she was limping and holding her side afterwards but he did not think she was seriously injured.

He took her to Bradford Royal Infirmary later that afternoon, but she did not want to go into the hospital.

“She was just saying ‘Take me home’,” he said.

She went to sleep on the sofa and he fell asleep himself after finishing off his half bottle of brandy.

His sister called an ambulance when she brought Miss Warren’s children home late that evening.

Kumar admitted lying to paramedics and at the hospital about what had happened to her.

He said he panicked and was thinking about himself.

Miss Warren died in hospital three days later.

Cross-examined by Paul Greaney QC, for the Crown, Kumar denied telling “highly calculated lies” about what had happened to Miss Warren.

“You subjected her to a far more significant assault than you are prepared to admit,” Mr Greaney said.

Kumar said he slapped Miss Warren hard four times.

The trial continues.