Wife jailed for fatal stabbing of husband in fit of temper

Judge tells Christine Rawle that her victim was in ‘no way the serial abuser’ she claimed him to have been

A HORSE WHISPERER with “an ungovernable temper” stabbed her husband to death after years of dysfunctional marriage.

Christine Rawle, 69, was jailed for life yesterday and ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years in prison for the murder of 72-year-old Ian Rawle after attacking him with a knife at their home in Braunton, Devon, in August 2022.

During the trial the court heard the couple had a dysfunctional marriage and likened them to the Roald Dahl characters The Twits.

The court also heard Rawle had put Viagra in her husband’s tea, itching powder in his underpants and wiped her backside with his ties.

The equine expert told police who arrested her she had acted after years of abuse, telling officers: “He just pushed me and pushed me and pushed me. He tortures me. I tried to get away many times. I wanted a divorce.”

Rawle pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder, claiming she was acting in self-defence following years of abuse at the hands of her husband, but was convicted of the charge by a unanimous jury yesterday.

James Adkin, the judge, rejected Rawle’s argument that she was a victim of controlling behaviour.

The judge told Rawle she “violently thrust” a knife with a 12.5in blade into her husband’s back, intending to kill him, during a heated argument about the sale of land on their £800,000 home.

Exeter Crown Court previously heard her husband then followed his wife of 27 years for 100 yards telling her to remove the knife, before collapsing and dying from the wound.

The judge told Rawle: “You said to the police that you were frightened of your husband. But he was a 72-year-old man with a knife in his back.

“He wanted you to help him. But it seems to me you refused to do so.” During the trial, Rawle claimed she had been the victim of coercive and controlling behaviour, suffering years of physical and psychological abuse from her husband.

The judge said: “Ian was not perfect. The evidence showed that he was obstinate, sometimes grumpy, he could shout, he was stuck in his ways and he was old-fashioned in terms of how he wanted a relationship with his wife. But he was in no way the serial domestic abuser you sought to portray him as.”

He added: “The main reason you killed your husband was that you have an ungovernable temper.”

Rawle did not give evidence during the trial but her legal team insisted she was acting in self-defence following years of physical and psychological abuse from her husband.

In footage taken from police body cams shown to the jury Rawle told officers: “He will come and get me. If he

‘You said you were frightened. But he was a 72-year-old man with a knife in his back’

gets well, he will come and get me and he will kill me. The constant threats, the constant undermining, the constant laughing behind my back. I would have taken my own life.”

She was then told by an officer that her husband had died and she was being arrested on suspicion of murder.

She told the officer: “He’s not going to hurt me anymore. I want to wake up. I want to wake up from this.”

During the four week trial Sean Brunton KC for the prosecution said it was “as clear a case of murder as you are likely to find”.

He told the jury: “This defendant, Christine Rawle, whilst having an argument with her husband, Ian, picked up a large, sharp knife and in a fit of temper, she stabbed it into his back without any warning as he was walking away.

“She left the knife sticking into his back and she then walked off with her husband now following her and imploring her to pull the knife out of his back. Having followed her a distance of approximately 100 yards, down through their fields in north Devon, he then collapsed on the ground and shortly thereafter he died, due to the wound inflicted by that stabbing.

“His wife, having removed the knife from his back at some point and kicked it under a stable door, then sat down and effectively waited for the police and the ambulance to arrive ... called by her daughter.” After Rawle stabbed her husband, she phoned a friend to look after her animals, saying “he’s dead”, before shutting her dogs away.

The judge said: “You appear to have prioritised them over your husband as he was slowly dying. Twenty minutes later, you did phone an ambulance. When they arrived, there was little they could do to save him.

“I cannot sentence you on the basis that he would have lived had you personally sought medical assistance, there’s no evidence to that effect. But I can sentence you on the basis his suffering was prolonged. I’m sure you intended to kill.”

The judge said Rawle knew the knife had recently been sharpened and had sent a text message that morning reading: “I hope the c--- dies”.

The judge added: “I’m also sure that in statements you made to the police, to the defence psychologist and to the defence psychiatrist, you chose to deliberately misrepresent the character of Ian Rawle to seek to persuade this jury that you were a victim of domestic abuse amounting to coercive and controlling behaviour.”

Jurors heard differing accounts of Rawle and her husband, with one neighbour describing Mr Rawle as “vindictive” and unpleasant to his wife.

Christine Rawle is led away by police after the murder, left; her husband Ian, above, during an argument that was filmed