THE Ukrainian lapdancer wife of a wealthy British businessman killed in a hit and run has denied plotting to murder him for his money, an inquest heard.
Barry Pring, 47, was killed when he was hit by a car using a stolen number plate while waiting for a taxi outside a restaurant in Kiev with his wife, Ganna Ziuzina, on February 16, 2008.
The IT consultant married Ziuzina – now known as Julianna Moore – in January 2007 in a whirlwind romance after meeting online a few months earlier when she had posted an ad on a dating website to find a husband.
Ziuzina was a trained primary school teacher, but she was working as a lapdancer at the time of her husband's death.
Pring's death was initially treated as a road accident but reclassified as a murder investigation after the family became suspicious about his death.
An inquest ruled in January 2017 that Pring had been unlawfully killed after being tricked into standing on the wrong side of the road during their first wedding anniversary celebrations, Mail Online reports.
But Moore, 42, had the inquest verdict quashed two months later, sparking the second inquest in Bristol which started on Monday.
Speaking on a video link from Spain, Moore, who was 19 years younger than her husband, told the inquest she had not organised his murder.
John McLinden QC, representing Moore, asked her: "Did you pay anybody to kill Barry, did you give any consideration, whether sexual, or property or anything like that, to reward them for killing Barry?"
She replied: "No."
For me, my life would be much better with Barry than without him. I don't know why anybody would suggest that I would like to kill him to get some money
Fiona Elder, counsel to the inquest, asked Moore about two men – her builder and a work colleague – who she had spoken to by phone around the time Pring was killed.
Asked whether she was motivated by greed to marry Pring and then kill him, Moore said: "For me, my life would be much better with Barry than without him.
"I don't know why anybody would suggest that I would like to kill him to get some money.
"I knew about the large mortgages he had. Whatever media was blowing that there was millions or whatever or inheritance, it's not true.
"I was quite aware of substantial mortgages he had. My life financially would be much more comfortable having Barry than not having him."
'VERY STRONG WILLED'
Moore suggested she would have been financially better off divorcing Pring, then having him killed and having to share his estate with his family.
She denied accusations she had "hypnotised" Pring or that he was "besotted" with her and said she found the allegations "hurtful".
"Barry was a grown-up man," she said.
"He was very strong willed. He had his own ideas about life. He wasn't a man that could easily fall under the spell. He was a very strong willed person."
Pring, who was originally from Devon, owned three properties in the London area and a flat in Kiev.
He also owned a second flat with Moore in Kiev.
His family became suspicious his death may have been foul play because Moore was "very cold" towards him and "not loving or caring".
They hired a private investigator in the Ukraine who discovered the authorities had not investigated Pring's death properly.
'GUT FEELING'
In earlier High Court proceedings, the Pring family had accused Moore of murdering her husband for his money.
Pring's brother, Shaughan, 58, told the inquest he became suspicious after speaking to his brother's best friend and lawyer Peter Clifford.
"On that night my initial concern was for Ms Moore," he said.
"I had a gut feeling something didn't sit right – just the way Ms Moore informed me of Barry's death.
"It was very calm, very callous, there was no emotion, it was cold.
"I was prepared to come to Ukraine right away because my concern was for her. Afterwards I had a gut feeling things weren't right.
"Mr Clifford said it was possible my brother may have been murdered for his assets and went through a list of reasons why."
You would have thought they had been married for years and not newlyweds. She was not loving or caring towards him at all
He added: "Thinking about Barry, he was extremely careful and travelled extensively.
"He was not a big drinker and over the dozens of times I had been out I had never seen him not in control of himself."
Pring's mum, Irene, told the inquest: "I was quite surprised to see how cold she was towards Barry.
"You would have thought they had been married for years and not newlyweds. She was not loving or caring towards him at all.
"There did not seem to be a spark between Anna or Barry and was very one-sided."
Moore has always denied any involvement in her husband's death.
Eight weeks after the inquest verdict in 2017, Moore claimed costs and received £40,000 from the coroner's office.
Her husband's family were also ordered to pay her £25,000 .
The latest inquest is taking place at Bristol Civil Justice Centre before Judge Paul Matthews.
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