Jailed: Wife who stabbed husband to death in post-party argument
AWIFE who stabbed her husband to death during a drink-fuelled row a week before Christmas has been jailed for eight years.
Natasha Jex, 32, used a kitchen knife to inflict the single, fatal blow to her 52-yearold husband Neil at their home in the Penywaun area of Aberdare on December 17 last year.
Swansea Crown Court heard the pair started to argue as they drove home and the row continued in their house.
Jex, pictured left, went into the kitchen and picked up a knife before fatally stabbing her husband in the chest.
AWOMAN plunged a kitchen knife into her husband’s chest following a heated row in the marital home, a court has heard.
Neil Jex, aged 52, suffered massive blood loss in the attack, and despite the best efforts of family, neighbours and paramedics, he could not be saved and was pronounced dead in the living room of the Aberdare property.
Natasha Jex, aged 32, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Neil Jex, who was also known as Neal, when she appeared in the dock at Swansea Crown Court yesterday.
The court heard the couple married in 2011 and had an “up and down” relationship, with verbal arguments that occasionally turned to violence.
Mike Jones QC, prosecuting, said on December 17 last year the couple – along with Mrs Jex’s son from a previous relationship – attended a “Christmas jumper day” and junior rugby party at Abercwmboi RFC.
Mr Jones said “the atmosphere in the club was a happy one”, and the couple talked and consumed alcohol.
They later got a lift back to their house in Llyswen in the Penywaun area of Aberdare, but the court heard an argument broke out between the couple during the journey.
That row continued in the house, and resulted in the pair grabbing each other by the throats as they sat in the living room, with the defendant “scramming” her husband’s face to get free.
Mrs Jex then made for the kitchen - with Mr Jex throwing an ashtray which smashed on the wall.
The court heard the defendant grabbed a kitchen knife from a drawer, and there was a brief confrontation in the doorway with Mrs Jex warning her husband she would stab him, and Mr Jex replying “go on then”.
Mrs Jex stabbed her husband in the chest with the knife, before running next door to her mother’s house and asking her to “come quickly”.
The court heard Jex’s mother found her shirtless son-in-law standing in the kitchen, bleeding profusely. He told her he “felt faint”.
She took hold of Mr Jex and lowered him to the floor, cradling his head in her lap and trying to slow the bleeding from his chest with a jumper.
Paramedics and police were soon on the scene, and found the kitchen floor covered in blood, with Mrs Jex kneeling beside her husband.
Mr Jex was not breathing, and despite 45 minutes of CPR and other life support procedures he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers recovered a blood-stained 13in kitchen knife from the floor.
The prosecutor said a subsequent post mortem examination revealed a single three inch-deep stab wound to the upper left chest of Mr Jex which had pierced his lung and led to “catastrophic and fatal” blood loss.
Blood tests showed Mr Jex was around one-and-a-half times the legal drink-drive limit at the time he died; the defendant was estimated to be just under twice the limit when the fatal blow was delivered.
In her police interview Jex said the pair had enjoyed a “lovely night” together at the rugby club, where she had consumed around seven pints of beer.
She said an argument subsequently broke out, with the row turning heated - including comments being made about family members and the couple’s respective children - before it turned physical.
Jex went on to describe how “both of us was as bad as each other”, with the pair going “throat to throat”.
She told police she went for the knife to frighten her husband, and had not meant to harm him.
The court heard details of an impact statement from Mr Jex’s 22-year-old daughter in which she described her father as “the biggest character in the family”.
She said the day her dad died was “the day my world ended”, and that she would always love him and be proud of the man he was.
Christopher Quinlan QC, for Jex, said the events of December 17 had left a family “physically and for evermore divided”.
The barrister said he had handed to the court some 41 personal references and statements on behalf of his client, which showed she had loved her husband, was an honest and kind-hearted person, a devoted mum, and a respected member of the community.
The barrister said his client accepted she had unlawfully killed her husband, but that the incident was neither planned nor premeditated, and she had picked up the knife “in extremis”.
Judge Keith Thomas said the Jexes has clearly been involved in a heated row prior to the incident, and he accepted the defendant had not intended to kill her husband or cause him serious injury.
He said the starting point for sentencing after conviction was nine years in prison - giving the defendant credit for her guilty plea, that was reduced to eight years. Jex will spend half that time in custody before being released on licence.