Estate agent ‘butchered wife who had lesbian affair and taunted him over manhood’
‘He couldn’t take the rejection’
AN ESTATE agent killed his wife after arguing with her about a lesbian affair she had with a friend’s daughter, a court in England has heard.
David Clark’s wife Melanie had also teased him about having a small penis before the bloody row last New Year’s Eve, jurors were told.
He stabbed her in the chest with a cook’s knife before dialling 999 minutes before midnight and confessing to killing her, it is alleged.
Mrs Clark, 44, who had four children from a previous relationship, was pronounced dead at the couple’s home in England just after midnight.
Minutes later, her two sons, aged 22 and 19, returned from a party to find police swarming over their house.
Clark was arrested in blood-soaked pyjamas on his 49th birthday at the three-bedroom, semi-detached property in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in England’s West Midlands.
He denies murder. Yesterday, Birmingham Crown Court was told the couple had been married for ten years but had a turbulent relationship. On New Year’s Eve they had drunk three bottles of prosecco between them as they celebrated at a friend’s house. They had also had spirits and played a drinking game version of snakes and ladders, which involved downing shots of whiskey, before returning home.
The court heard that after calling police, Clark tried to kill himself and begged officers to shoot him when they arrived.
Benjamin Aina, prosecuting, said officers found Mrs Clark’s body in an upstairs bedroom. She had been stabbed once in the chest, apparently offering no resistance.
‘It is the prosecution’s case that Melanie Clark was killed by her husband following an argument,’ he said. ‘During the argument, Melanie Clark had told her husband she wanted him to leave their home. He couldn’t take the rejection and killed his wife.
‘He kept a dagger-shaped cook’s knife in his room. He took his knife from his room, went to her room and stabbed her in the chest.’
Mr Aina added: ‘During the later police interview, it came out that a friend of Melanie and David had a daughter – and she had had a lesbian encounter with Melanie. She had told David about this before.
‘She brought it up again on the evening of the incident and he couldn’t remember what happened next.
‘Even before they were married, she had made comments that he had a “small d**k”. He had a complex about it.’ The court heard that the couple had been married for ten years but had no children together. She had two boys and two girls from her previous relationship.
Mr Aina said Clark moved out of the family home in December 2016. He returned in February last year but they slept in separate bedrooms, and in November Mrs Clark told friends she was ‘not happy’.
‘The master bedroom is the bedroom where Melanie slept,’ said Mr Aina. ‘This is where the body was found. There was a knife that had been found near the body. At about 6pm on New Year’s Eve, the two sons drove the defendant and Mrs Clark to the home of their friends who live in Bromsgrove, the idea being Melanie Clark and the defendant would celebrate New Year’s Eve with their friends.
‘The defendant and Melanie Clark drank three bottles of prosecco between them.
‘The defendant and Melanie and their friends played cards and they played a drinking game – snakes and ladders with shots of whiskey. Both the defendant and Melanie had some of the alcoholic shots.
‘It was after 10pm when they left in a taxi. The evidence is that when they left they were in good spirits... laughing and joking.’
But just before midnight, Clark phoned the emergency services.
Jurors heard that he told the 999 operator: ‘I’m sorry, I’ve killed my wife. My wife started being s*** again. I’m totally in love with my wife. She f ***** g killed me and I had to stop her. I can’t believe I f ***** g did it. I’m going to do myself in. I love my wife so much.
‘She f ***** g did my head in. I’m f ***** g devastated. I don’t know why I did it.’
Asked what he stabbed her with, he allegedly replied: ‘I think a knife.’ He was said to have added: ‘I’ll blow myself up.’
When police arrived, they found the front door and the garage door open. Mr Aina said: ‘The defendant appeared from the side of the house in his pyjamas with blood on his arms, forehead and shoulders.
‘The officers asked him, “Have you got the knife on you?” and he replies, “Just f ***** g shoot me”.
‘She had not been violent to him on the night. Blood on the knife was found to be that of Melanie.’
Mrs Clark’s son Slade Heppell, 19, told jurors his mother and Clark would argue at the house.
The court was told Clark would also swear at his wife’s children when they annoyed him and left angry notes around the house.
Mr Heppell said: ‘If items had been left behind in the kitchen, he would throw them out or leave notes behind asking, “What the f*** is this doing left around?” ’
The trial continues.