Husband found not guilty of drowning wife says she told him she signed a ... trends now

A husband accused of drowning his wife before murder charges against him were dropped claimed today that she told him she had signed a 'contract with the Devil' before he found her lifeless body in a lake and tried to resuscitate her.

Factory worker Andrius Vengalis, 46, also denied trying to 'throttle' mother-of-five Egle Vengaliene, 35, or pushing her under the water at the lake in Brandon Country Park, Suffolk on April 9, 2021.

He claimed that he tried to save her by carrying out chest compressions and trying to blow air into her mouth but he could not open her jaw.

Mr Vengalis was charged with his Lithuanian-born wife's murder but after nine months in custody, he walked free after a not guilty charge was recorded by a judge at Ipswich Crown Court in January last year when prosecutors offered no evidence against him. 

During his time in jail, his five children had gone to live with his wife's family in Lithuania.

Mr Vengalis told Suffolk Coroner's Court in Ipswich today that his wife had said to him two or three days before her death that she had made a pact with the Devil. 

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: 'A couple of days earlier, she had mentioned something about Devils tearing her apart. It was the things she was into.

'She mentioned that she had signed a document, a contract with the Devil. We were outside the room and I think I was preparing myself for work.

'When she got up in the morning, she mentioned something about dreaming about the Devil. He had put his leg on her chest, and would not release her until she signed the contract. She said, "Don't be afraid, don't worry. I know how to disperse this contract".'

Mr Vengalis was asked by Michael Hill, the counsel to the inquest, whether he thought his wife believed it was something that had happened to her in real life or a dream. He replied: 'I started to think there was something wrong going on with her.'

When quizzed on whether he was concerned about her mental state, he said: 'Now in hindsight and looking back, I think she was having issues much earlier, but I didn't mention it.

'I had not paid much attention to it until she started talking about the Devil. I was worried, but she was always smiling and saying everything was fine with her.'

Asked how his wife thought she would discharge her contract with the Devil, he replied that he believed she would use 'regressive hypnosis'.

He also recalled her 'discussing something along those lines' while his wife was talking to her mother on the phone in Lithuania two days before her death.

Mr Vengalis said: 'I can't say the exact conversation, but I heard the word Devil was mentioned more than once.'

Earlier the inquest heard how three of the couple's children had given statements to police suggesting that he had been physically abusive to Ms Vengaliene for years.

One of the children, referred to only as Child A, said: 'He would hit mum sometimes. Throw her out of bed, kick her out of bed, throw stuff at us.'

Another of his children called Child C told police that Mr Vengalis used bad language against his mother, punched her in the back and 'put his hands around her neck'.

But Mr Vengalis dismissed the abuse claims as 'complete nonsense'. He told the inquest today: 'I never did this. I never hurt her.'

He claimed that his children had been coaxed by their grandmother into making statements about him. 'Everything was done so they would have some reason to take my children out of the country. They had to show that father was an enemy,' he added.

'All the childrens' evidence was gathered to take them out of the country. They

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