Wife ‘knifed husband to death after he lost job as solicitor’
A DOMINEERING and violent newlywed wife killed her lawyer husband after he lost his job, a court heard yesterday.
Sharon Edwards, 42, stabbed 51-year- old husband David through the heart with a kitchen knife the day after they returned from a holiday in Spain, it was alleged.
The court heard that she ‘quite liked the idea of being Mrs Edwards, the solicitor’s wife’ and had argued with her husband after learning he was to be made redundant.
Mr Edwards was found in bed with a three-inch knife wound in his chest at the couple’s £320,000 house in Chorley, Lancashire, on August 23 last year – just two months after they were married in Las Vegas.
Yesterday, Manchester Crown Court heard how Mr Edwards was often covered in cuts and bruises because his ‘domineering’, ‘possessive’ and ‘very jealous’ wife would regularly beat him. But the father of one was ‘too embarrassed’ about being a male victim of domestic abuse and instead ‘accepted his lot’, the prosecution said.
He told colleagues the injuries – including black eyes and knife wounds – were caused by accidents around the house.
The court heard that police had intervened twice after finding Mr Edwards bloodied and injured following arguments – the second time only 12 hours before he was found dead.
Prosecuting, Anne Whyte QC said mother- of-two Edwards – who has pleaded not guilty to murder – had become resentful after her husband lost his job. She said: ‘David Edwards has quite literally been stabbed in the heart. That, we say, could not have happened accidentally. Furthermore his lifeless body revealed evidence of regular assaults in the form of other wounds caused by a sharp object and blunt trauma.
‘On August 23, she went too far and she knows she went too far. Twice in two successive days she used such a weapon in anger against a man whom she knew would never restrain her or physically fight back.’
The court heard how Mr Edwards was a popular man with a sevenyear-old daughter from a previous relationship and two houses in the market town of Chorley.
The prosecution said Mr
‘Concerned for
his welfare’
Edwards became ‘plainly besotted’ with Sharon Manser when they met in the summer of 2014.
But the jury was told how she would regularly assault him during drunken rows, even in front of their respective children. The court heard that Mr Edwards had been recorded saying his wife could ‘knock him out with one punch’ and could hit ‘rather hard’.
Miss Whyte said colleagues at his criminal law firm in Chorlton became ‘very concerned for his welfare’. They began to notice he was drinking a lot and saw a ‘decline in his appearance, his professionalism, and his self-respect’.
In particular, they were worried about his increasing number of cuts and bruises – including turning up at court with a black eye or a cut to the back of his head. Mr Edwards blamed the injuries on accidents in the house, for example falling down stairs or walking into a garage door.
Miss Whyte said he was ‘completely resigned to the situation’. She added: ‘He was dependent on her, wanted her in his life, took pleasure in her company at times, but also felt that there was no going back. He was embarrassed about his status as a male victim of such abuse.
‘In fact, as time went on, he seemed to care less and less about the visibility of his injuries. He would turn up at court dishevelled and apparently unconcerned about how wretched his appearance was.’
Police visited the family home in January 2015 after Edwards’s 19year-old daughter said her mother was punching Mr Edwards. But when officers quizzed Mr Edwards – who had a ‘bloodied, inflamed, and swollen’ nose – he said he had fallen into a wall.
Upon returning from Spain on August 22, the court heard how Mrs Edwards’s daughter found her stepfather in the bathroom ‘calling for help’ and cleaning blood from his body after her mother had put a knife to his chest.
Despite his injuries, the couple went to the pub. Miss Whyte said: ‘There was blood on his T- shirt and shorts and around his leg. There was a cut to his head and blood coming down his neck. People expressed concern about him (at the pub) although Sharon Edwards notably did not.’
At 2am, a police officer found the couple ‘worse for wear’ in the street as Edwards berated her husband, and drove them home.
The following day, Mr Edwards was found dead in his bed.
The trial continues.