NZ murder accused 'wishes he was dead'

A New Zealand student accused of murdering his wife in the United States told a psychiatrist she did not deserve to die, and he dreamed of being reunited with her.

In tapes of four interviews by a defence psychiatrist, played at his trial in New York, former Aucklander Blazej Kot, 25, described his thoughts leading up to the killing of Caroline Coffey, at Ithaca in New York state.

Kot, who was studying at Cornell University in upstate New York, is accused of cutting his wife's throat on a walking track last June.

Kot told the psychiatrist he thought Dr Coffey had been used to test him, WENY TV reported.

After the killing his first thought was to go home and wait, he said.

He thought maybe someone else would get blamed for it, but when he saw blood on his hands and face in a mirror he felt he had to kill himself.

He was found after slashing his own throat and airlifted him to a hospital.

Kot said he still wanted to be dead, but he didn't want to screw it up again.

The trial is continuing.

- NZPA