Woman who stabbed husband told police he was 'a pain', court told

A pensioner who stabbed her husband to death had described him as a “pain in the arse” when she previously called police officers to her home, a court has heard.

Penelope Jackson, 66, knifed her 78-year-old husband David three times in the kitchen of their bungalow in Parsonage Road in Berrow, Somerset, on February 13 this year.

She admits manslaughter but denies the murder of her husband and is on trial at Bristol Crown Court.

On Monday 18 October, the jury heard she had previously called police in December 2020 after her husband of 24 years picked up a poker and smashed a conservatory window before walking off.

It was the day after he had an operation to have his pacemaker battery replaced and she had locked him in the conservatory to calm down after they had a row about how to use the remote control.

In her 999 call to police about this incident, she said: “I have just got bruises up my arms. He grabbed me and threatened me. I don’t want to say anymore."

In the 999 call she also said “it’s Christmas and it should not be happening”.

During the call, Jackson said her husband had at some point had the poker and told her “if you do not go away I will use it on you”.

Jackson went on to tell the operator “but he did not mean it”.

The jury heard Jackson was upset when police arrived at her home and she said “he is going to be mortified and angry” about what had happened.

An officer told her the incident would be recorded as an assault and the couple should not be under the same roof that night.

On whether the matter should be taken further, with her daughter sitting beside her, Jackson said: “Part of me wants to make him pay for it but that’s spite.

“It’s either we get through it or we get divorced – at the moment, I do not know how we get back from it.”

She said his behaviour was not so controlling that he would stop her from seeing people, but added “but he is a pain in the arse”.

Jackson said “he would say I’m a control freak” and described the situation as “worrying but I have to deal with it now”.

She admits the manslaughter of the retired lieutenant colonel but denies murder, claiming her husband was coercive and controlling and also physically violent towards her.

Jackson described herself as a “pragmatist” and felt the situation was one where she would have to “get over it or he walks … nobody can make that decision but me”.

The row had come out of the blue and Jackson told officers it may have had something to do with his operation for the pacemaker battery replacement, the court heard.

The jury heard a police violence abuse questionnaire which was filled out by an officer who attended the scene said Jackson had not felt isolated, depressed or stalked.

When the officer telephoned her a few days later, Jackson said she and her husband had sorted out their problem and he had turned the voltage on his pacemaker battery down after a call had been put in to the hospital. He was back to his normal self and had no recollection of what had happened.

Clare Wade QC, defending, said Jackson was “wringing her hands and her voice was wavering at times” when she spoke to the police at her home.

At one point she pulled up the sleeve of her nightgown to show a small round bruise was developing on her forearm, before covering it up again.

When police arrived, Mr Jackson was in another room in the house with his son-in-law and was told by an officer he should spend the night with his daughter in Bristol.

Jackson says she had suffered long term domestic abuse at the hands of her husband.

The court heard how she had made repeated internet searches for terms such as 'violence', 'refuge', 'divorce' and 'living with my abuser'.

She had texted her husband in 2018 writing, 'You frighten me. I cannot grow old like this'.

Another message from that year read 'I love you but I can no longer cope'.

She also told her husband that he 'got nasty' when he'd been drinking."