Woman knifed husband in row about Zoom call then wrote confession, jury told

A woman who stabbed her husband three times following a row over a Zoom call wrote a confession as she waited for police to arrive, a court has heard.

Penelope Jackson, 66, knifed her husband of 24 years David in the kitchen of their bungalow in Parsonage Road in Berrow, Somerset, on February 13 this year.

The 78-year-old victim managed to call emergency services before losing consciousness, but the defendant took the phone from him and refused to follow the operator’s instructions to help him.

On the opening day of her trial for murder, the jury heard she instead told the operator 'I thought I'd got his heart but he hasn't got one'.

On the second day of the trial at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday 12 October, the court heard police found a confession written on a pad by the telephone when they arrived at the scene.

The note read: “To whom it may concern, I have taken so much abuse over the years – look at my records.”

It continued: “I accept my punishment, may he rot in hell.”

Jackson added a comment in one corner which appeared to read “self-defence”.

During the 18-minute call to emergency services, and later to police, Jackson repeatedly acknowledged what she had done.

When she was arrested on suspicion of murder, she said: “It’s murder now, not attempted murder? Oh good.”

She then apologised for officers for “being a nuisance”.

Jackson was so forthcoming, officers advised her to be quiet and wait for legal advice.

She responded: “There’s nothing. I did it.

“Why I did it is a different issue, but I did it.”

The defendant continued: “Remorse is easy, it’s been a long time coming – I did it, I’m guilty.

“If I was given the chance, I’d do it again, even if they locked me up for 125 million years it would still be worth it.”

Jackson added: “I should have walked away years ago but you don’t, I deserve everything that is coming my way because you shouldn’t do what I did.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

The following day, Jackson refused to answer questions in a police interview and instead she put forward a prepared statement claiming the victim had been abusive and controlling towards her.

Jackson said the “extreme violence” had started after the suicide of the victim’s son from his first marriage in 1998.

She said the attack had been sparked by a row over a Zoom call.

The defendant said their daughter had bought her and Mr Jackson a gourmet meal for her birthday, and they and their daughter and son-in-law had eaten it over Zoom together.

But the evening had turned sour, Jackson said, following a row over the food, and the call had ended.

She said she had gone to bed with a knife under her pillow for protection.

The statement said: “When I woke up I felt I couldn’t do this anymore and I intended to take my own life and I planned to slit my wrists.

“I told David I had had enough and was going to kill myself and he said ‘get on with it then’ – I then thought ‘why should it be me? It’s you’.”

Jackson claimed the victim had laid down on the spare bed and goaded her into stabbing him.

Jackson told the call handler she stabbed him because “he thought I couldn’t go through with it”.

The court heard that, when she was arrested, Jackson had bruises on her arms that doctors concluded could have been inflicted on the night of the killing.

Jackson admits manslaughter but denies murder.

The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.