Guilty of murder in her M&S pyjamas
⯀ Penny Jackson claimed she’d been bullied into knifing fourth husband ⯀ Said she was glad he was dead – and will now serve at least 18 YEARS
A RETIRED accountant who stabbed her fourth husband to death was jailed for life for his murder yesterday.
Penelope Jackson, 66, fatally attacked spouse David, 78, with a filleting knife then told a 999 operator: ‘I thought I’d got him in the heart, but he hasn’t got one.’
Her claim that the killing followed years of abuse was rejected by the jury.
It can now be revealed that the family of Jackson’s third husband believe that she pushed him to suicide.
Jailing her for a minimum of 18 years, Judge Martin Picton told Jackson he was ‘quite sure [Mr Jackson] was nothing like the person you claimed’.
‘I have no doubt that you intended to kill your husband. Your actions had nothing to do with self-defence,’ he said.
A three-week trial at Bristol Crown Court heard the attack happened after the couple rowed because of a dish of bubble and squeak cooked for a virtual dinner with daughter Isabelle Potterton and her husband, Tom.
When she was arrested in her M&S pyjamas, Jackson told police her husband ‘got everything he deserved’.
Jackson was stony-faced and pale in the dock as the verdict was read out yesterday. Her face cracked momentarily as she glanced at her family while she was led away.
In a moving statement following the verdict, Jackson’s daughter, who is pregnant and to whom Mr Jackson was a father figure while not her biological father, said: ‘I have lost the man that I looked up to and loved. I have lost the man that was always there for me no matter what.
‘But I feel I have also lost my mum. I have lost the woman who always knew how to make me feel better. The woman who was my friend, my champion and my support. The woman who cared, cherished and loved me.
‘I love both of them. I always have and I always will.’
Sally Challen, whose 2011 conviction for the murder of her abusive husband was overturned in 2019 on the grounds of diminished responsibility, said last night: ‘I am appalled, upset and I cannot believe that the dinosaurs in the judicial system and the CPS haven’t learnt from my case.’
Following Jackson’s conviction it can be reported that the family of her third husband Alan Warrender have now raised serious questions over his death.
Mr Warrender was married to Jackson for five years until his suicide in 1993, caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Shortly before his death he had discovered Jackson had been having an affair with Mr Jackson.
Mr Warrender’s brother Stewart, 64, from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, said: ‘My suspicions about my brother not being wholly responsible for taking his life appear to be correct.
‘I was sceptical of a suicide. It could be more coercion. She could have driven him to it. That fits in with Alan’s profile.’
Jane Calverley, Mr Jackson’s daughter from a previous marriage, described her stepmother as ‘controlling’ and said her father was the victim of domestic abuse.
She told her from the witness box: ‘Our society does not promote male victims of domestic abuse and you took advantage of that and had ultimate power over him.’
The jury took nearly 11 hours to arrive at a 10-2 majority verdict, convicting Jackson of a single charge of murder, following a 12day trial.
She had admitted unlawfully killing Mr Jackson at the outset of the trial but denied murder.
The trial heard that Mr Jackson had been violent to his wife on three occasions.
Jackson stabbed her husband multiple times with an eight-inch ProCook filleting knife after a row at their home in Berrow, Somerset, on February 13 over a lobster, crab and steak dinner organised ahead of Jackson’s 66th birthday, just days later.
The trial was played the harrowing 18-minute phone call Mr Jackson made to the emergency services. When asked about Mr Jackson’s condition, his wife casually told the operator: ‘He’s bleeding to death with any luck.’
The former Ministry of Defence accountant told Bristol Crown Court she lost control after decades of verbal and physical abuse. She claimed her husband was a bully who pushed her to her limits until she could take no more.
Judge Picton told Jackson: ‘I have no doubt you reached a stage when you wanted out of the marriage. You knew your daughter would support you if you chose to separate.
‘Despite that, you didn’t just kill a man who you once loved, but you also deprived many others of a man they loved as well.’
‘Got everything he deserved’