Former Grantham woman found guilty of murder

Former Grantham resident, Penelope Jackson, 66, stabbed David Jackson three times at their home in Parsonage Road in Berrow, Somerset on 13 February after they argued during a meal to celebrate her birthday. She had already admitted manslaughter, but denied murder.

A woman who stabbed her husband to death after a row that erupted during a birthday meal has been found guilty of murder.

Penelope Jackson, 66, stabbed David Jackson three times at their home in Parsonage Road in Berrow, Somerset on 13 February after they argued during a meal to celebrate her birthday.

She had already admitted manslaughter, but denied murder.

Mr Jackson was her fourth husband.

Her third husband was Alan Warrender, an RAF Chief Technician. The couple lived on Northcliffe Road Grantham, in the early 1990s, but Mr Warrender died in 1993.

Grantham Coroner John Pert concluded at the time,, he took his own life, after dying of carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage. He blamed “marital stress”.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.486.2_en.html#goog_1328961609Play Video – Woman ‘admits it all’ after stabbing husbandWoman ‘admits it all’ after stabbing husband

Mr Jackson, a retired lieutenant colonel, was first stabbed across the chest in a bedroom.

The 78-year-old was then stabbed twice more by his wife in the kitchen while he was on the phone to police calling for help.

She then took over the call and told the operator: “He’s in the kitchen bleeding to death, with any luck” – repeatedly acknowledging what she had done as she refused to give emergency aid.

Bristol Crown Court has heard the couple had quarrelled because Mr Jackson got angry when she prepared a side dish of bubble and squeak vegetables to eat with an expensive meal of crab, lobster and steak purchased by their daughter to celebrate her birthday.

Police officers later found a confession note by the phone, that read: “To whom it may concern, I have taken so much abuse over the years – look at my records.”

It continued: “But he was a good Daddy. However, the mask slipped tonight. That was unforgivable. I accept my punishment, may he rot in hell.”

Throughout the trial, Jackson claimed her husband was violent towards her and coercively controlling, and told the court on the night of the killing he had called her “pathetic” when she told him she wanted to kill herself.

The court heard she had called the police in December last year when he smashed a glass door with a poker during a row over the TV remote control.

The defendant’s daughter Isabelle Potterton, who had been raised by her father from birth, told Bristol Crown Court she had witnessed him acting violently towards her mother on three occasions when she was a child, including one incident where he held a knife to her throat.

She also recalled ending a video link dinner for her mother’s birthday on 13 February – the day of the killing – because her parents were arguing over who had forgotten to charge their computer.

She called her mother at 8.08pm to check she was okay, where Mrs Potterton said the defendant told her she was “absolutely fine, don’t worry, I’ll call you in the morning”.

Just over an hour later, Jackson fatally stabbed her husband.

Jackson previously broke down in tears in court, telling the jury: “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t want to kill him. I did it, I am sorry. I didn’t want him to die. He loved me, and I loved him, and it’s awful about what happened.”

The jury had been told to focus on the issues of lack of intent and loss of control when reaching their verdict.

Judge Martin Picton told them Jackson’s defence rests on the issues of a lack of intent to kill and loss of self-control.

He said they must consider whether a person in similar circumstances possessed of “a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint” would have acted in the same way.

“If you are sure that such a person would not have reacted in such a way, the defence of ‘loss of self-control’ would not apply and your verdict on the charge of murder would be ‘guilty’,” Judge Picton said.

“If however, you decide that such a person would or may have reacted in a similar way to the defendant then the defence of ‘loss of self-control’ would apply, and your verdict would be ‘not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter’.”

Judge Picton said: “It is contended that the reaction of the defendant, stabbing her husband as he was calling for help at a point when he was already bleeding from a serious albeit not fatal wound, is not how someone with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint would react.”

“The defence, however, argue that you cannot be sure that such is the case.”

He added that given the years of domestic abuse alleged by the defendant, Jackson’s defence team state: “The action of stabbing her husband is suggested to be within the range of how a person of normal tolerance and self-restraint could act (and) that you cannot be sure that such a person would not.”