Tearful model admits killing millionaire ex
Mayka Kukucova sobbed as she relived lying in wait for her ex-boyfriend Andrew Bush, as he arrived at his Spanish holiday home with his new lover.
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Malaga - A former model wept uncontrollably as she relived the night she shot her millionaire British ex-boyfriend dead.
Slovakian Mayka Kukucova, 26, broke down repeatedly at the start of her Spanish murder trial as she denied killing wealthy jeweller Andrew Bush intentionally after lying in wait for him as he arrived at his Costa del Sol holiday home with his new Russian lover.
She claimed the weapon went off during a violent struggle as she tried to wrench it from Mr Bush’s grasp after being attacked first.
The 48-year-old father-of-one from Bristol was killed on April 5, 2014. He had just arrived at his rented mansion near Estepona for a romantic getaway with new girlfriend Maria Korotaeva, 22. One shot from an Italian-made .38 Amadeo Rossi revolver hit him in the arm and two more shots hit his head.
Kukucova, who fled the house in her ex’s Hummer, has been in custody for more than two years. She was arrested in her native Slovakia days after the fatal shooting and extradited to Spain to face questioning and charges. She says the British businessman turned violent after finding her in his holiday home when she went to pick up belongings after the end of their two-year relationship. She said: ‘He pointed the gun at me and said, “Here is where everything ends”.
‘The weapon wouldn’t fire and I threw myself at him. I don’t know how but when we were fighting I got the weapon and it went off. The shot deafened me.’
Kukucova was warned she could face 25 years in jail if convicted.
Eduardo Martinez Martin, who is prosecuting Kukucova on behalf of Mr Bush’s daughter Ellie, 22, and sister Rachel, said: ‘What is beyond dispute is that we have a dead man killed by three shots, one to the arm and two to the head. It’s impossible he could have killed himself. He has been shot three times and by someone else.’
State prosecutor Jose Antonio Nieblas hinted that Kukucova was jealous of her ex dating a new woman. He said: ‘I intend to show Mr Bush’s murder was linked to the existence of a passionate motive.’
Kukucova could not explain why Mr Bush’s body was found ‘far from the stairs by a column’ when she said on the witness stand their last struggle took place on the stairs.
Asked why the gun she wrestled from him was found in his hand, she said: ‘I don’t know.’Asked why she hadn’t gone to police in Spain or phoned an ambulance after fleeing the house instead of returning to Slovakia a wanted woman, she said: ‘I didn’t know he was seriously injured, let alone dead.
‘I was worried he would send his friends or workers to come and get me. I was terrified something bad would happen.’
She said she only went to his holiday home to pick up her belongings and denied making the trip when she knew he would be in Spain because she was tracking his movements.
Kukucova’s lawyer, Carlos Larranaga, told the court: ‘My client shot Mr Bush.’ He said being a killer did not make her a murderer. The trial continues.
Daily Mail