Metro

‘Suitcase killer’ defense: ‘She hit me first’

A suspected East Harlem killer who stuffed his victim in a suitcase confessed to bashing her over the head with a pan and strangling her with a cord — but only after she first attacked him, prosecutors said yesterday.

Hassan Malik, 55, told cops he paid victim Betty Williams, 28, for sex and then fought with her after he caught her trying to steal his money, according to police sources.

Malik — who has a long rap sheet for assault, harassment, robbery and drugs — copped to the strangulation slaying of Williams in a written and videotaped confession, according to a criminal complaint.

He was arrested Monday at a Sleepy Hollow apartment, arraigned on murder charges yesterday, and held without bail.

Malik initially told detectives he had returned home to his Pleasant Avenue pad to find Williams dead. He claimed Williams had been spending time in the apartment with another man.

But Malik later admitted he had lied and gave cops the “she hit me first” story, according to the complaint.

The suspect said Williams “struck him with a frying pan twice on his shoulder,” so he grabbed the pan from her and used it to crack her twice on the head, the court papers claim.

After being hit, Malik claimed Williams managed to grab an electrical cord and wrap it around his neck, but he wrested it away and choked her, the documents said.

Shortly after she passed out, Malik told cops, he discovered she was dead.

According to the complaint, the suspect admitted to stuffing her body into a suitcase and then abandoning it on East 114th Street near First Avenue.

Williams — who had 14 arrests and, police said, a history of prostitution — was found clothed in the luggage last Wednesday by a passer-by.

The break in the case came after a tipster saw a video released by police that allegedly showed Malik wheeling the suitcase to the spot where it was discovered.

When Malik was taken from the 23rd Precinct station house early yesterday, he told reporters he was “sorry” for what he did.