Oxford hospital scientist threatened to kill wife spared

Morteza Jodeiri-Lakpour, 59, repeated three times during an argument at the couple’s home in September 2019 the words ‘I will kill you’, reinforcing the threat by holding a spoon to her eye.

“Your time is coming to an end,” he told the woman. Chasing her around the room, he grabbed a recently boiled kettle and tried to launch the scalding water at her. Thankfully, the woman was not burned.

The couple’s son, then 10-years-old, was in the house when the incident happened. He was found hiding in a wardrobe.

The argument and threats were caught on tape, Jodeiri-Lakpour’s wife having had the presence of mind to begin recording the encounter on her phone.

The victim was so concerned about her then husband’s threats to kill her that she emailed her GP later that day. If anything happened to her, she wrote, ‘he is to be blamed’.

Sentencing on Wednesday (September 6), the judge, Recorder Stephen Smith, described the email as the action of a woman ‘attempting to make provision for the unimaginable’.

He added: “It’s clear she thought she could be killed that night.”

Long Wittenham man Jodeiri-Lakpour, of Didcot Road, denied that he had intended his wife to believe that the threats would have been carried out.

A jury did not believe him, however, finding him guilty of making threats to kill. He was acquitted of a separate charge of controlling and coercive behaviour.

Recorder Smith described the threats made by Jodeiri-Lakpour as ‘chilling’. He noted that the defendant was said to have told his wife that ‘people would believe [him] and not her’.

The judge said: “You were a scientist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, you would surround yourself with eminent surgeons if she would accuse you of anything. They would support you. You would be believed. She wouldn’t [be].”

READ MORE: Two bodies discovered in two days in Oxfordshire tragedy

The defendant was ‘charming’ in the presence of others but a different person when alone with his wife, it was said.

During the trial, Jodeiri-Lakpour's defence lawyers called ‘eminent surgeons’ to give evidence of his good character.

“Your character witnesses only knew what you told them and they were not there at the time of this incident,” Recorder Smith said.

He had shown a ‘degree of remorse’, it was said, had joint caring responsibilities for the couple’s son, and suffered from poor health – so much so his advocate described him as a ‘walking pharmacy’.

“On account of the impact on your son, this will be a suspended sentence,” the judge told Jodeiri-Lakpour.

He imposed two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, with 300 hours of unpaid work and a requirement he completes the building better relationships course.

A restraining order limits his contact with his ex-wife for a decade.

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