Woman who stabbed husband to death organised dog sitter before calling 999, court hears

A woman who fatally stabbed her husband with a knife did not immediately call the emergency services for help, but instead organised for a friend to look after her dogs, a court heard.

Christine Rawle, 69, stabbed her husband Ian, 72, in the back with a kitchen knife before waiting 20 minutes to dial 999.

Exeter Crown Court heard the emergency services were already on their way to their remote home in Braunton, north Devon.

Rawle’s daughter had alerted the police after overhearing her mother during a telephone conversation say she had stabbed her stepfather.

The jury has been told the couple married in 1995 and their marriage was “dysfunctional” – with the prosecution likening them to Roald Dahl's characters The Twits.

The defendant, who had three children from a previous marriage, referred to her husband by the nickname “Dick”.

Sean Brunton KC, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Rawle had been fatally stabbed on the afternoon of 21 August 2022 as he mucked out the stables at their smallholding.

“While this is going on they are bickering and arguing with each other – a kind of ‘she said, he said’ – over the phone to her daughter as her mother is still on the phone,” he said.

“All while for the 10 minutes or so she is on the phone to her daughter can hear her parents bickering.

“At the end of which the defendant is heard by her daughter to say, ‘I’ve stabbed him, I’ve stabbed him’.”

Within a minute of the fatal attack, the defendant’s daughter phoned the police to report what she heard.

A call operator rings Rawle and speaks with her for around six minutes.

'I am watching him die in front of me'

“While her husband was dying and while the ambulance operative was trying to get Mrs Rawle to engage in first aid to try to keep her husband alive, she was saying, ‘Dick, Dick, you bastard… I stabbed him. He was on and on at me, I am watching him die in front of me’,” Mr Brunton said.

“Despite the fact her daughter has called the police and the ambulance service all by 2.23pm – all within five minutes of her first realising her mother has stabbed her stepfather – this defendant does not in fact call the ambulance service herself until 2.39pm – some 20 minutes later,” Mr Brunton said.

“By then it is right to say the ambulance service have contacted her and they had her on the line for six minutes but that still means between 2.17pm and 2.18pm, when she must have stabbed Ian Rawle, and 2.33pm when the ambulance service call her – some 15 minutes later – this defendant appears to have made no attempt to call 999 at all.

“In fact, this defendant was busy making a call to a friend about looking after dogs. It is only after she has sorted that out, she calls the ambulance service herself.”

Mr Brunton told the jury when the police arrived at the scene the defendant began telling them of threats from her husband, including threatening to shoot and beat her.

While being booked into custody, Rawle told officers: “I just killed my husband, I just snapped. I should have dropped everything and ran.”

During police interviews, Rawle said she could not remember the attack, telling officers: “It would appear so, but I can’t recall doing it or feel doing it. It is like watching a film.

“I don’t remember all of it, I can’t remember looking, I think I stabbed him. I closed my eyes.”

Mr Brunton suggested Rawle had told an “opportunistic and fabricated story” to the police over what happened.

“She is not an unintelligent woman, she is a highly complicated woman, and we would suggest a manipulative one,” he said.

“She was keen to say an awful lot, particularly about what a thoroughly unpleasant man her husband was.”

Jurors heard that friends and family would describe Mr Rawle was a “grumpy old man” who could be rude.

“He would frequently wind his wife up – he made no secret of it – but he was not a monster,” Mr Brunton said.

“Likewise, this defendant was no victim, she was no shrinking violet, and she could often be rude or aggressive, or demanding or confrontational or downright unpleasant to him and others.”

Mr Brunton said the partner of Rawle’s youngest son would recall that the first time she went to the couple’s home she witnessed the defendant holding a knife to Mr Rawle’s throat.

“She remembers later on this defendant would confide in her that she didn’t really like Ian and loved to torment him,” he said.

“That sometimes she put Viagra in his tea or chilli powder in his underpants or occasionally wipe her backside with his ties out of some kind of spite or joke.

“In short, she remembers that this defendant was proud of, and bragging to her, about how she annoyed Ian Rawle.”

Rawle, of Braunton, Devon denies murder. The trial continues.