Ganna Ziuzina denies organising murder of her husband Barry Pring, in Ukraine

The widow of a wealthy British businessman killed in a hit and run in Ukraine as he celebrated his first wedding anniversary has denied organising his murder, an inquest heard.

Barry Pring, 47, suffered fatal injuries when he was hit by a vehicle using a stolen number plate while waiting for a taxi outside a restaurant in Kiev with his wife, Ganna Ziuzina, on 16 February 2008.

The IT consultant married Ziuzina, known as Anna, in January 2007 in a whirlwind romance after meeting online a few months earlier when she had registered with a website to find a husband.

Ziuzina, now known as Julianna Moore, was a trained primary school teacher but was working as a dancer.

Speaking on a video link from Spain, Moore, 42, who was 19 years younger than her husband, told the inquest in Bristol 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.”

Fiona Elder, counsel to the inquest, asked Moore about two men – her builder and a colleague – that she had spoken to by phone around the time Pring was killed.

She asked the witness: “Did you make any arrangement with either of these two men in relation to the incident that killed your husband?”

Moore replied: “No.”

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.”

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 also 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.”

The inquest was taking place at Bristol Civil Justice Centre before Judge Paul Matthews. This is the second inquest to be held, after a ruling of unlawful killing in the first, in January 2017, was quashed.

Pring, who was originally from Devon, owned three properties in the London area and a flat in Kiev. He also owned a second flat jointly with Moore in Kiev.

His family became suspicious that 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 Ukraine who discovered the authorities had not investigated Pring’s death properly.

In earlier high court proceedings, the Pring family had accused Moore of murdering her husband for his money, though these claims were apparently later withdrawn, resulting in the family releasing a statement saying Moore had not murdered him.

Pring’s brother, Shaughan, 58, told the inquest he became suspicious after speaking to his brother’s best friend, Peter Clifford.

“On that night my initial concern was for Ms Moore,” Pring 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.”

The hearing continues.