Homeopath accused of murder ‘rewrote will’

A HOMOEOPATHIC doctor accused of murdering his young lover turned up suicidal at his ex-wife’s house to hurriedly rewrite his will to his children, a court heard yesterday.

Christopher Newman, 62, allegedly stabbed Georgina Eager, 28, repeatedly in her Dublin bedroom in May 2003, took €1,200 from her account and fled to London.

She was about to leave “possessive” Newman when he attacked her in the flat next door to his well-being clinic in St Peter’s Road, Walkinstown, leaving the murder weapon in her neck.

Newman, also known as Saph Dean, denies murder, but admits manslaughter, claiming he acted in self defence.

Ms Eager was working at Newman’s clinic in the summer of 2002 when they starting having sex.

He allowed her to help run the business, renting her a flat next door, and even changed his will to leave her all his assets.

But when the passionate relationship turned sour and she threatened to leave him, he murdered her, Inner London Crown Court has heard.

In a statement read to the court, Mafida Louhichi, Newman’s ex-wife who had not seen him for 15 years, said he arrived at her home at around 6pm on May 22, 2003.

Tunisia-born Ms Louhichi, of Upper Street, Islington, north London, said the couple married in 1985 and ran a beauty school together next door to her home.

They had two sons, now aged 15 and 19, before divorcing in the 1990s. Ms Louhichi, who knew Newman as Palta, said one of her sons answered the door.

“I was in total disbelief that it should be Palta,” she said.

“He looked old and frail...was talking about committing suicide. He said his end was tomorrow and we’d read it in the paper.

“I got him a pen and paper - he began to write out his will. He never once told me what he’d done.”

Soon afterwards, she asked him to leave and he tried to give his son money.

“My son threw the money back at him. He threw it back out of the taxi - my son picked the money up and gave it to me.”

The court heard that during the visit, Newman wrote an affidavit dated the following day, leaving all his possessions to the sons.

Ms Eager is believed to have died between 8.30pm on May 21, 2003, and 10.30am the following morning.

Newman, of 143 St Peter’s Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, and also of Moby House, Catford, southeast London, denies murder.

The trial continues.