Joshua Michals, 26, told jurors that 31-year-old creative writing student Zhe Wang became “stressed”, believing – incorrectly – she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD) after they had sex.
Michals said that on March 20, 2024 he went to her flat with a charcuterie selection to bring some “normalcy” to the “bizarre situation”.
Giving evidence in his murder trial, Michals said: “It thought it would be a nice thing to do. Things had been a bit tense.”
On arrival at the flat on Manor Park, Hither Green, he found Ms Wang “cold” and monosyllabic, jurors heard.
The film-making studies student said he went to the bathroom for a minute and came out to find Ms Wang holding a knife.
He told jurors she looked “completely crazy”, adding: “She had this wicked look in her eye. Demented. I would be tempted to say possessed as well. It scared the hell out of me.”
Michals said Ms Wang, a fellow student at Goldsmiths, University of London, then came at him with the knife raised and he grabbed her wrist and told her to “stop”.
The blade was “flashing back and forth” during the struggle and he saw her face “go red” with blood from a cut, the court heard.
Michals told jurors: “With her face red it looked completely crazy, psychotic.”
He shook her arm and the knife fell to the floor, causing both of them to “pounce” for it, the defendant said.
Michals said he grabbed the handle and Ms Wang held the blade before he pulled it out of her grasp.
He said: “She continued to grab at me, reaching for the knife.
“I panicked. I was turning away and I just saw this blood red face coming at me.
“I got this jolt seeing this blood red face and I swung my arm around, like a backhand, turning with it, with the knife. She stumbled back. It went into her cheek.”
Michals said he did not mean to strike Ms Wang with the knife, saying: “I just wanted to get her away from me.”
He went on: “It was a weird pause. I was in shock for a moment. I had never hit anyone in my life. I had never been in a fight.
“There was a brief moment when she turned back to face me. She just threw herself back at me. She practically ran into me.”
She grabbed his collar and they both fell to the floor, the knife still embedded in her cheek, jurors heard.
Michals said: “Our faces were right next to each other. I saw the knife.
“I had another one of those jolts, a knife right next to my face. I grabbed it and ended up throwing it away, getting rid of it.”
Michals said he turned his head away as Ms Wang tried to “claw” at his eyes still holding on to his collar.
He told jurors: “I had to do something, there is a hand clawing at me. I put a forearm out. Just to keep her in place, calm her down.”
Michals told jurors that he continued to restrain her, calling for her to “calm down” and “stop” until she ceased struggling.
Michals told jurors that throughout the incident Ms Wang said nothing to him and the only sound she made was a “grunt” when she was cut.
Brian St Louis KC, defending, asked: “What do you think would have happened to you if that knife had remained in Ms Wang’s hands?”
Michals replied: “She would have stabbed me. She wouldn’t stop, she wanted to use the knife.”
Police found Chinese national Ms Wang with two stab wounds to her face after the defendant called 999.
Previously, Michals has told jurors how he met Ms Wang on his first day on the Goldsmiths campus and they “hung out” around 10 times before her death.
He told jurors he had felt “so-so” about pursuing a relationship with her because she had a phobia of germs.
After finding a “red dot” on her skin after sex, she demanded he get an STD test, even vowing to find him on campus to “drag” him to see a GP, the court has heard.
Jurors have been told that Michals never had a sexually transmitted disease.
Michals, of Deals Gateway, south-east London, has denied murder and the Old Bailey trial continues.
