Stab wife is jailed for 18yrs
Husband ‘kind and caring’ says judge
A WIFE who murdered her husband in a row over bubble and squeak has been jailed for at least 18 years.
Penelope Jackson, 66, admitted the killing but claimed she lost control after years of physical and mental abuse.
But yesterday a jury decided she was lying and a judge described her husband as kind, gentle and caring.
After stabbing ex-army officer David three times, Jackson told a 999 operator: “I thought I’d get his heart but he hasn’t got one.” She added that she hoped he was “bleeding to death with any luck”.
When arrested on suspicion of murder, she replied: “It’s murder now, not attempted murder? Oh good.”
The couple had rowed about her serving bubble and squeak with a gourmet meal their daughter bought them in lockdown.
Retired accountant Jackson claimed her husband had previously tried to strangle her, banned her friends and told her what TV to watch.
But after almost 11 hours, jurors at Bristol crown court convicted her of murdering the retired lieutenant colonel. Judge Martin Picton sentenced her to life and said she must serve a minimum 18 years.
He said David, 78, had been a “kind, gentle and caring man” whom she “sought to portray as a monster”. Hours before February’s fatal attack the couple had dined with their daughter Isabelle Potterton and her husband Tom over Zoom. Jackson and her husband, from Berrow, Somerset, argued about her serving bubble and squeak with steak. Four-times wed Jackson told jurors: “It wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back but it was in the bundle.” She said that she took a kitchen knife to bed to kill herself but ended up stabbing her husband when he failed to apologise.
Before sentencing, David’s estranged daughter, Jane Calverley, accused Jackson of being the abuser.
She said: “My father was a proud man. This probably cost him his life because he would never have sought help.” martin.fricker@mirror.co.uk