From the Sun-Herald 0ct 13, 2002
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The Russian mail-order bride linked to the murder of Australian Catholic school principal Peter Hughes confessed last night: "I blame myself."
Caressing the engagement ring Hughes gave her, attractive 31-year-old blonde Angelica Ovcharova told The Sun-Herald in an exclusive interview: "This tragedy happened because of me in that we got to know each other over the internet.
"He came to Russia to see me and now this is where he found his death. I will celebrate my birthday next Wednesday with tragedy all around me. I feel so alone."
Ms Ovcharova is no longer a suspect in the brutal slaying of Hughes, the 55-year-old Bathurst teacher found strangled and naked in a blood-soaked Moscow hotel room on October 7.
But following extensive investigations in Moscow and the UK, The Sun-Herald has pieced together the extraordinary story of how a pillar of church society came to die in a seedy hotel in the Russian capital.
Hughes, according to Moscow police, had fallen deeply for Ms Ovcharova. Not only had he travelled to meet her on two previous occasions, he compiled a diary which investigators found beside his battered body.
One entry read: "This month will be the happiest of my life, because for the whole month I will be with Angelica."
But it wasn't to be. The Sun-Herald can reveal that just hours before his body was found, he and Ms Ovcharova had argued over a pre-nuptial agreement.
Hughes then took a taxi from the centre of Moscow to his three-star hotel near the city's main international airport, Sheremetyevo2.
He downed drinks in the hotel bar before retiring to his room. Soon afterwards, two young women arrived and told hotel security guards they had been invited by the man in room 504.
A police source close to the murder investigation said: "These security guards believed them to be prostitutes and allowed them in." Cameras at the hotel later showed two men also going to room 504.
The police source said: "They listened at the door before returning to the bar. They waited 15 minutes and then went back."
A maid later discovered Hughes's body, strangled and gagged with his own trousers.
Hughes, a father of three, had earlier flown to England in August and accepted a teaching job in Kettering, Northamptonshire.
He failed to show up for his first day at work in the UK and was subsequently listed by police as a missing person, but he resurfaced in Sydney on September 22 before flying off to Moscow 48 hours later.
Yesterday, Ms Ovcharova fought back tears and filled in the missing pieces to the jigsaw.
Speaking from the cramped kitchen of the communal flat where she lives in Moscow, she explained how the bizarre relationship between her and a former Catholic principal 24 years her senior started on the internet earlier this year.
Ms Ovcharova, a buyer for book companies, said: "I saw the internet as my last chance of finding someone so I chose a few sites aimed at foreign men seeking Russian brides. I can't say I liked his face when he sent his picture. But that wasn't important: Ijust wanted a good man with whom I could start a family."
Ms Ovcharova said it was Hughes's colourful letters that stole her heart. "They showed he had a high intellectual level and also a talent for writing," she said. "He seemed like an interesting man."
Hughes first arrived in Moscow on April 15 and Ms Ovcharova met him at the airport. He stayed at a city hotel and the couple began to click, using an interpreter to help with conversation.
"It was a bit strange for me in that he looked older than 55. But I didn't mind it," she said.
"He told me about the three grown-up children and four grandchildren he had in Australia and proudly showed me their pictures.
"He spoke of how his wife and he had grown apart when the children grew up, and had divorced three or four years ago. He took me to theatres and restaurants. I could tell he really liked me."
Ms Ovcharova believed that although Hughes was not the man she had dreamed about spending the rest of her life with, they could have been happy.
"My aim was to start a family and he spoke the same way. He told me, 'We have enough years left to raise them together'."
But Ms Ovcharova revealed she also held concerns. "I noticed that over time he was very concerned about money, counting every penny.
"I also had the diamond ring he bought me valued and discovered it was fake.
"I especially didn't like his drinking but he said that when we went to Australia, he would give up.
"He was quite timid but this was good for me. I'm not the person to take orders."
The couple received a setback in July when Ms Ovcharova's application for an Australian visa was refused. "There was a big difference in our ages ... maybe they suspected I was just looking for a husband to get away from Russia and start a new life," she said.
When Hughes returned to Russia a second time in August, the couple travelled to the remote city of Georgievsk where Ms Ovcharova boldly introduced her future husband to her parents.
"He liked my family very much and they were happy with my choice."
The couple later travelled to Sochi, Russia's main seaside resort on the Black Sea.
"We had a brilliant holiday there," Ms Ovcharova said, suddenly sounding brighter.
"We were getting on very well and it was here that we first made love."
After leaving Russia in August, Hughes flew to London and landed the UK teaching job - despite already having one in Australia.
Unravelling the mystery, Ms Ovcharova said: "The reason he went to England was that he wanted to be closer to me.
"If he was in Britain, he could fly to Moscow almost every weekend. It's just a three-and-a-half hour flight from London.
"The idea was to do this until we got a visa for me to go to Australia."
But she added: "Then his brother got ill in Australia. He said his elderly mother could not possibly look after him and he needed to return home urgently, so that's why he left England so quickly."
Hughes arrived back in Russia on September 25, intending to stay for exactly a month. He brought with him a document showing the confirmation of marriage arrangements from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, dated September 20.
He checked into a cheap, $7-a-night hotel, close to Ms Ovcharova's flat. It meant they could see each other easily. But tragically, she said, the very last time they saw one another they rowed and parted badly. "I don't think he ordered the prostitutes," she said. "It is more likely robbers used the girls to entice, attack and rob him.
"I was expecting a phone call from him, but he didn't call, which was unusual. Then the police came two days later and said 'Do you know Peter Hughes?' I said 'Yes, he's going to be my bridegroom'.
"When they told me he had been murdered, I could not focus on their words. I could not believe this was happening."
Clasping the 2002 Sydney calendar Hughes had given her, she sighed: "I guess I'll never see Australia now."
