Horse whisperer ‘called pal to sort her dogs out before taking knife out of husband’
Murder jury is told daughter alerted police
A WIFE plunged a knife into her husband’s back then called a friend to “sort her dogs out” before removing the blade, her murder trial heard yesterday.
Christine Rawle, 70, a selfdescribed “horsewoman”, asked spouse Ian, 72, to help her muck out the horses before stabbing him between the shoulder blades, prosecutors said.
A court heard Rawle was on the phone to her daughter when she attacked her husband and told her: “I’ve stabbed him.”
Rawle had picked the knife up to cut some cord to tie up the gates as her husband had asked, Exeter crown court heard.
Jurors were told her daughter hung up the phone and called Thames Valley Police and the ambulance service.
But instead of phoning for help, Rawle, a mum-of-three from her first marriage, made a 28-second call to one of her best friends, in which she asked her to “sort her dogs out”, jurors heard.
After allegedly driving a knife 10cm into her husband of 27 years, Rawle is said to have walked from their barn to the door of their isolated bungalow near Braunton in North Devon.
When police arrived at the scene on August 21, 2022, she told officers: “I took his life because he was horrible to me. He terrorised. It was continuous. I wanted out.”
She also told officers: “He wasn’t sexually capable, he had a prostate issue, he used to blame me and tell me I’m not attractive. He didn’t want children, he made me get sterilised.”
The couple, who prosecutor Sean Brunton KC, has previously likened to Roald Dahl’s The Twits due to their constant bickering, had previously called police to the house, the court heard.
The prosecution also told jurors they would hear evidence from a neighbour who would tell how Rawle would treat her husband.
The woman claims Rawle put Viagra in his tea, chilli powder in his underpants and would wipe her backside with his ties.
The neighbour, who was introduced to the couple by her partner, was told “this was normal” for the pair.
Hours before the attack, in messages she sent to her daughter, Rawle called her husband a “d**k” and a “b ***** d”. Rawle denies murder.
The case continues.