'I was petrified': Woman accused of murder says husband threatened to kill her, court hears

• A clip of a police interview of Christine Rawle was played to the jury.

A woman accused of murder told police she asked her husband for a divorce and he threatened to kill her before she allegedly stabbed him in the back.

Christine Rawle, 70, is on trial accused of killing Ian Rawle at their home in north Devon. She denies murder.

Jurors were shown video footage of Mrs Rawle's police interview the day after her husband's death.

She told detectives she had come into some money, through a negligence claim, and this made Mr Rawle angry.

"I could not live with him the way he was treating me, I was scared of him", Mrs Rawle said.

"He said I would never get any money, and when I said 'I have, here it is', he got worse, much worse.

"I said to him 'I can't put up with the way you're treating me, I'm going to divorce you.'

"You can't live as a second-class citizen, with someone saying they are going to kill you, because you want to be free. I was petrified. I was absolutely petrified."

Mrs Rawle said the couple were doing jobs at their smallholding near Braunton, including cleaning out horse manure, on the day in question.

Ian Rawle died from a single stab wound, but Mrs Rawle told detectives she could not remember stabbing him.

"He was shouting so much," she said.

"If you're saying he got stabbed and I was the only one there, it had to be me. But I don't remember stabbing him. I don't remember. It seems like a dream."

Mrs Rawle said her husband called her a "liar" and threatened to kill her.

"We had a long conversation in which he made it quite clear that he had every intention of killing me," she said.

"I tried to talk him out of it, but he would not let it go."

When Mrs Rawle was being booked in by police officers after her arrest, she told them: "I just snapped, I could not take any more."

In her interview the following day, she claimed her husband was "systematically abusing" her.

"There are people who think I've done this for financial gain, but I didn't," she said.

"I didn't need his money. I saw a future. I didn't need him."

Asked why she stayed with her husband if he was threatening her, she said: "The way it worked with us rowing, the moment I backed down it would all be peace.

"I couldn't have him systematically bully me, and that led up to me realising that at my age I needed to leave. And this was the opportunity, with the money.

"He only got angry when I brought up again about getting divorced.

"I said to him 'I cannot live with you because you're threatening me.'"

Mrs Rawle added: "He was everything to me, and he treated me so badly, and when I found a way of getting away from him, he decided he was going to hurt me. Hurt me badly."

She also told police her husband had made a 'slitting throat' gesture and implied she was 'mental' just moments before his death.

Speaking to detectives after her arrest, Christine Rawle said she had been arguing with her husband, Ian, at their home in north Devon.

Mrs Rawle was on the phone to her daughter, Chiez, asking for her help.

"He was going like this (slit throat) to me," she said during her police interview.

"That was going on for quite a while before I phoned Chiez."

Mrs Rawle told police her husband made a gesture, twirling his finger around next to his head, suggesting his wife was insane.

She added that Mr Rawle had been "my captor". "Years ago he was my dream partner," she said.

"Over the years a lot of things have happened and I have always been made to back down.

"Lots of things have happened that I would be ashamed to say. Lots of things have happened to my animals."

Christine Rawle denies murder and the trial continues.