A 'Mum of the Year' who stabbed her husband to death was caught on bodycam telling police 'it was an argument that got out of control'.

Helena Karine Atay, 42, knifed Atakan Atay, 45, in the heart at their home in Birtley, Gateshead, on October 18 last year - and was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of lack of intent.

After the incident, officers attended the scene and spoke to Helena, who initially tried to deflect attention away from herself, saying Atakan had enemies and business partners he had fallen out with - and that she had heard him arguing on the phone.

Helena Karine Atay was given the 'Mum of the Year' award for her campaign to raise money for daughter Sophie (both pictured right), to get treatment for neuroblastoma in the US

After Atakan had died, she is told she is going to be arrested on suspicion of murder and replies: 'Oh really, he's not okay.'

Sitting on her bed in handcuffs, talking to a police officer, she goes on to say: 'Look, an argument that got out of hand.'

When asked if that's what happened, she replies: 'I'm not going to tell you. I'm not a f****** killer, that's it, and I've got to live with that now.'

The footage proved to be a crucial piece of evidence in discounting Atay’s primary defence - that she was acting in self-defence.

Atay had previously been given the local paper 'Mum of the Year' award after her campaign to raise £500,000 for her toddler daughter Sophie to get treatment in the US for neuroblastoma.

Tragic Sophie lost her fight for life in 2010 when she was just two, before she could start the treatment in America but a family campaign for more research into the disease was taken to Downing Street.

After Atakan had died, Helena is told she is going to be arrested on suspicion of murder and replies: 'Oh really, he's not okay'

Atay said to her dying husband 'there's Sophie', 'we're going to get you an ambulance. I'm really sorry. I love you so much'

Newcastle Crown Court heard she stabbed Atakan just below a tattoo which read 'Sophie, my endless love'.

The businessman was only able to utter the words 'nine nine nine please' while struggling to breathe during a 17 minute call he made to the emergency services after the attack, which has been played in court, last October.

After he fell silent, his wife, who is known as Karine, could be heard telling him: 'You're lying. I would never do that to you Atakan. I would never hurt you.'

She also said to her dying husband 'there's Sophie', 'we're going to get you an ambulance. I'm really sorry. I love you so much.'

Mr Atay, who had business interests in a hotel and a convenience store named after the couple's late daughter, died after receiving two stab wounds, one of which punctured his heart.

Atay said on the night he was killed, Atakan and she had argued when she tried to leave the house for more drink

Atay said in a statement she had been strangled to the point where she feared she would pass out in an attack by her husband the year before.

She said on the night he was killed, Mr Atay and she had argued when she tried to leave the house for more drink, that he was 'angry' and had kicked her in the leg and hurt her arm.

Atay claimed she was 'terrified' her husband was 'really going to hurt her'.

She told jurors during the trial she stayed in the marriage as she feared her husband may take their children back to his homeland in Turkey and was worried how she would survive.

She told the court: 'I was scared, scared of the children going, scared of how I would survive, I didn't know how I would survive.'

Prosecutor John Elvidge QC claimed Atay 'exaggerated' her husband's past behaviour and that then trouble had started that night because she wanted to go out and get alcohol.

Mr Elvidge said the accused mum could be 'volatile, confrontational, aggressive and threatening' in drink and had been in trouble because of it in the past.

He said her alcohol problems date back to before the tragic death of the couple's young daughter.

Mr Elvidge told jurors: 'The prosecution says that on the night of October 18 2018, as on previous occasions, her craving for alcohol led Karine Atay to seek to leave the matrimonial home.

'There was a confrontation but not a grave one until she chose to pick up a knife and use it against her unarmed husband, deliberately and unlawfully stabbing him more than once, delivering a fatal wound that penetrated into his heart and caused his death.'

Atay was cleared of murdering Atakan and convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of lack of intent.

Jurors heard she stabbed him in the heart with a kitchen knife up to the hilt.

Atay is due to be sentenced for manslaughter on Friday.