A former Mum of the Year winner had a "toxic" relationship the husband she's accused of murdering, a court heard.
The sister of Helena Karine Atay, known as Karine, told a jury her sibling told her Atakan Atay had been violent and abusive from the start of their relationship.
Elaine Love said the mum had struggled to cope since the death of her two-year-old daughter Sophie from cancer in 2010.
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Atay - who won a Mum of the Year contest after losing her daughter - is accused of knifing her husband to death in October last year, Chronicle Live reports.
She denies murder, claiming he attacked her as she was about to go out to buy wine but can't remember stabbing him.
Mrs Love told Newcastle Crown Court she had never seen Atakan being physically violent towards Atay but was asked if she was aware from Atay there had been violence.
She replied: “Very much so, from the beginning of the relationship.”
Asked if she had seen Atakan verbally abuse her sister, she said: “Yes often. He would say things like you are lazy, you are good for nothing, you are fat, you’re ugly.
”Once I was there and there was an advert for a sofa and there was a sloth and he said ‘look Karine it’s you, isn’t it’.
”I had said that’s not very nice Atakan, you should not be like that.
”Karine said he does it all the time.
“He said but it’s true, isn’t it Karine.”
Mrs Love also claimed Atakan had made comments to her about Atay and would belittle her.
”He would moan about her, saying she was lazy and didn’t do housework," she said.
“He would belittle her all the time.
“I didn’t like to listen to that because obviously I would not agree with him.”
She added: “I said they should not be together.
“I told him it’s clear you and Karine are very unhappy and you should split up.
”I told Karine the same.
“I felt it was a toxic relationship and I felt she deserved better than that.”
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Mrs Love said Atay did “everything” to try to help Sophie and said she’s “so proud” that the money she raised was used to fund help for five children to go to America for life-saving treatment, given Sophie died before the funds could be used to help her.
She added that Atay was drinking heavily after Sophie’s death.
When she spoke to her about it, she said Atay told her: “Elaine, until you have held your child and watched them take their last breath and slept with their cold lifeless body and then bathed and clothed them in the morning, then handed their body over to the undertakers, then please don’t judge me.”
Mrs Love told the court: “I was dumbfounded and thought how can I judge anybody.”
She went on to tell jurors there was a memory box for Sophie in Atay's ’s bedroom, which contained items including Sophie’s dummy, a yellow duck she held all the time, “Sophie’s diamond” made from her hair and some of her clothes.
She added that a pair of Sophie’s shoes were kept on Atay’s bedside table and she also had above her bed a picture of Sophie and a poem or verse and a handprint or footprint.
Mrs Love said it was not long after Sophie died, she nominated Atay for a Mum of the Year award with The Chronicle, which she won. She had just given birth again so her mother collected the award on her behalf.
Atay, 42, denies murdering Atakan, 45, at their home in Birtley, Gateshead on the night of October 18 last year.
The trial continues.
