Horse-whisperer ‘stabbed husband in back during fit of temper after years of bickering’
A KEEN horsewoman stabbed d her husband in the back in a ‘fit of f temper’ following years of ‘bickering’, - a court heard yesterday.
Christine Rawle, 70, attacked d ‘defenceless’ Ian Rawle, 72, after a row at their isolated bungalow in n north Devon.
Mr Rawle followed his wife into a field d with the knife stuck in his back, ‘imploring - her to pull it out’, before collapsing, g, jurors were told.
Rawle, who claims to have acted after r suffering for years at the hands of her r ‘nasty and bullying’ husband, is then n said to have removed the knife and d kicked it under the door of a stable.
The mother of three, who described herself on social media as a ‘registered horse trainer’ and is known as ‘the horse-whisperer’, has pleaded not guilty to murder and will argue she was the victim of a controlling and coercive relationship.
Opening the case at Exeter Crown n Court, Sean Brunton KC referenced the e popular Roald Dahl book, The Twits. He e said: ‘It’s about a married couple who delight in making each other’s lives as miserable as possible. They play tricks on each other, they are mean to each other. But they also need each other.
‘While The Twits is a humorous story of fiction, and this case is very real, we say the book serves to illustrate a point.
‘That some marriages, particularly those that have endured for many years, are complex, not always happy and often have hidden depths. But generally each party learns to live with the other, or else leaves.’
Jurors were told that Mrs Rawle had attacked her husband twice before, once with a fork and once with a knife. Mr Brunton added: ‘Once she put a hosepipe through the window of her husband’s car and filled it with water. They would slap each other, push each other, call each other nasty names.’
He said: ‘This is as clear a case of murder as you are likely to find. This defendant was having an argument with her husband, Ian. She picked up a large, sharp knife, and in a fit of temper, stabbed it into his back without any warning as he was walking away.
‘She left the knife sticking out of his back and walked off, her husband following her and imploring her to pull the knife out.’ Mr Brunton said Rawle then removed the knife and kicked it under the stable door before sitting down and waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive after her daughter called the emergency services.
The prosecutor said Rawle was a ‘complex, troubled, somewhat devious woman’, who stabbed ‘this unarmed, unprepared 72-year-old man’ at their home in Kittywell Wood, Knowle, in August 2022.
He asked whether ‘her husband was so nasty, so bullying and so abusive towards her that she was somehow compelled to act as she did and justify such an act against a defenceless husband’.
Mr Brunton said she could just have walked away and gone to stay with one of her many friends or relatives.
The Rawles – who had been married for 29 years – bickered and were petty and unkind to each other, said Mr Brunton, who added: ‘If anyone was the bully, it was this woman.’
It was Christine Rawle who was manipulative and making demands, not the other way around, he said.
‘To stab a knife into someone’s back without any warning is not an act of self- defence. It is not self- defence in any conceivable circumstances to simply lose your temper and lash out because you are not getting your own way in a long-standing argument.
‘That is no excuse and no defence to a charge of murder.’ Mr Brunton said the prosecution rejected Rawle’s assertion that her husband had been a bully, sexually abusive and treated her like a modern slave.
Both Rawles had been married before and Mrs Rawle had three children from her first marriage. Mr Rawle’s previous wife and another long-term partner said there was nothing unpleasant or bullying about him or his behaviour towards them, the jury heard.
Mr Brunton said: ‘Quite the contrary, he was a mild-mannered, thoughtful, hard- working and decent man. He was no saint, far from it, he had his faults, but a straightforward man.’
The trial continues.
‘A complex and devious woman’