Wife was ‘remorseless killer’ argues expert
A WOMAN jailed for stabbing her husband three times after a row over bubble and squeak is a “remorseless” killer who set out to murder him, a top criminologist claimed.
Retired accountant Penelope Jackson, 66, was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years on Friday, with Judge Martin Picton saying she had shown “not a shred of remorse”.
She admitted manslaughter at the start of a two-and-a-half week trial at Bristol Crown Court, saying that she stabbed retired Lieutenant Colonel David Jackson, 78, three times at their bungalow in Berrow, Somerset, on February 13 this year.
She claimed that after years of physical and emotional abuse, she lost control after he belittled her over her choice of dinner dish in front of her daughter on a Zoom call.
But the jury found her guilty of murder by a majority verdict of 10 to two after deliberating for more than 10 hours.
The jury heard after the row she went to her husband in bed with a knife and threatened to take her own life but stabbed him after he told her to get on with it.
She then stabbed him a further two times as he called 999 before taking the phone from him.
The court was played an 18-minute 999 call, during which Jackson refused to help her injured husband and calmly told the operator: “I thought I’d get his heart, well he hasn’t got one,” that he was “bleeding to death with any luck” and she might stab him again.
A hand-written confession found in the kitchen said: “I accept my punishment. May he rot in hell.”
In bodycam footage, recorded by police who arrived at the scene, she said “I admit it all,” and urged them not to perform CPR, adding: “With any luck you’ll be too late. I should have stabbed him a bit more.
“I have no intention of not agreeing to what I’ve done, I know why I’ve done it and if I haven’t done it properly I’m really annoyed.”
The court heard Mr Jackson had shown aggression and violence towards her on at least three occasions in the late 1990s but that she had also been controlling and belittling to him during the relationship.
Police had also been called to the address on December 23 last year, with Jackson reporting being afraid of her husband after an earlier row.
In 2015 the offence of coercive control, which recognised domestic abuse could be psychological, not just physical, was created.
Sally Challen, jailed for life in 2010 for murdering husband Richard with a hammer, was freed in 2019 when her sentence was reduced to manslaughter after she successfully appealed the conviction on grounds she was a victim of coercion and control.
TV criminologist Professor David Wilson said he “absolutely” believes there is a legitimate defence to murder of coercion and control, and it “goes to the heart of some abusive relationships women are in”. However, he said Jackson was unlikely to be successful using it, due to her lack of remorse and behaviour after the killing.
He said: “I am perfectly willing to accept there was coercion, control and abuse within her relationship. “However, from what she said, it was quite clear she intended to kill her husband and that is the difference between manslaughter and murder.”
He added: “It was always very difficult to run that [coercion] defence legally because of the things that she said on the 999 call and the bodycam footage.
“I almost felt that the arresting officer was telling her to be quiet – ‘don’t say anything else’ – but she continued to speak. She deliberately intended and said she deliberately intended, to do what she set out to do and, therefore the history of the relationship, in that respect, is secondary to the crime she set out to commit.
“She did not react differently in the aftermath, she never expressed remorse and she was quite open about the fact she wanted him dead.
“That does not mean there was not abuse in the relationship but the crime you are dealing with at that point, because of the evidence presented, is murder.
“She used words and phrases that did not imply a temporary loss of control. She used words and phrases that demonstrated she achieved what she set out to achieve.”
But Harriet Wistrich, lawyer for Challen and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, disagreed, saying: “The majority jury verdict and harsh sentence of the judge shows that there is a long way to go before victims of coercive and controlling behaviour can get justice and the understanding they deserve.”