Homeyra Monckton, 46, needed the assistance of a court usher to enter the witness box and briefly broke down as she told a jury at the Old Bailey how the men forced open the front door. After being stabbed twice in the back by the accomplice, who was wearing a balaclava, she said that she passed out, believing her husband would overcome the figure with whom he was struggling.

“I was thinking, ‘I am dying and he will survive’, because he looked so strong,” she said. “He was fighting, still holding the man’s wrists up. I said to my husband, ‘I have been stabbed’, and I was screaming all the time. I said it maybe a couple of times and then I fainted.”

When she regained consciousness, she heard her fatally injured husband moaning on the floor as their assailants fled. Mrs Monckton was giving evidence in the trial of Elliot White and Damien Hanson, both 24, who deny murdering Mr Monckton, a senior bonds director with Legal & General at the couple’s opulent home in Chelsea on November 29.

Both men also deny the attempted murder of Mrs Monckton and wounding with intent.

The court has been told that Mr White posed as a postman to deliver a bogus parcel to Mr Monckton after the couple had been targeted for their wealth.Mrs Monckton, a mother of two, told the court that her husband returned home early on the night of his death while she was giving her daughter, Isobel, nine, a bath. She said that the doorbell rang at about 7.30pm and, over the intercom, the caller announced that he had a parcel for Mr Monckton.

He first checked through the front-door spyhole and then, with the security chain still on, opened the door. Mrs Monckton said she could see a man holding a parcel and wearing a striped jacket, which she described as being like a Postman Pat outfit. Moments later, after her husband had taken off the chain, he opened the door and the men burst in — her husband crying “no, no, no,” as he tried to push the door shut. She joined him but the couple were unable to keep them out.

Mrs Monckton told the jury: “One came in with a balaclava. He stabbed me almost immediately, without saying anything. All I could think about was that there was a panic alarm in the bedroom on the first floor and I needed to get up there. I was stabbed again as I was going up.” She added: “I could not feel anything in my legs. I sat down and I could see my husband defending himself with another man. I could see him holding his arms high, holding the other man’s arms in front of him, away from him.”

Her assailant “calmly and coldly” demanded the two rings from her fingers, her earrings and a watch — and when he asked for money, she pointed out her handbag to him.

Mrs Monckton said the man in the balaclava had two weapons — a knife and a handgun — and through the eyeholes in his balaclava she could see that he was black. The two rings and watch were worth about £4,500, the earrings were only costume jewellery. Asked whether one of the robbers was reluctant to join in with the violence, she replied: “No, not at all. They destroyed our lives.” The case continues.

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