Expat spared death penalty after killing brutal husband
‘I thought we’d grow old together’ says crying wife jailed in Malaysia
A BRITISH woman spared execution after killing her husband cried as she told a Malaysian court: “I thought we’d grow old together”.
Samantha Jones, 54, said she had feared for her life when the knife plunged into her husband of 17 years during a scuffle.
Yesterday she sobbed with relief as she pleaded guilty to the culpable homicide of John Jones, 63, after a murder charge was dropped.
Her victim, a grandfather-of-five, died from a single wound to his chest, which pierced his liver.
The former firefighter from Worcestershire had been stabbed after returning drunk on the paradise island of Langkawi in 2018.
He had pulled out the knife and lay dying while his wife tried to stop the bleeding, the court was told. It took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, the defence said, by which time he was already dead.
Scared
The court heard how Mr Jones, who had two children from a previous marriage, had emotionally and physically abused his wife for years. The insurance clerk from Somerset said she had reported him to the police in the UK.
Yesterday a judge told her she was fortunate as he jailed her for three-and-half years and fined her £1,800.
With time served she could be free by March, after avoiding the mandatory death sentence for murder. She would then be deported to the UK.
Samantha – who spent days in hospital because of a chest infection from her severe asthma – wore a face mask as she was escorted into the High Court in Kedah. She broke down when shown pictures of the post mortem and the knife which caused a 6in wound to her husband’s liver.
The court heard that on October 18 John had returned to their villa at 2am after drinking all day.
Samantha was in bed when he attacked her, causing her to fall off the bed. He then kicked her in the back and stomach several times.
Her lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo said: “He grabbed her and dragged her to the living room where he continued attacking her. She went to run out of the house to get help from a neighbour.
“In the kitchen the knife was on the counter, she grabbed it to defend herself and threaten him. ”
But the court heard a scuffle followed and “the next thing she knew” he had been stabbed.
Samantha said: “I was scared and he was so angry. I tried to stop him, I did not know it would happen like this.”
She told how they had been having marriage problems and had been getting counselling. But Samantha added: “I believed he was actually getting better. We were happy. I thought we would grow old together.
“He used to say I was one half of him and he was the other half of me. I really miss him dearly.”
John met Samantha at a fire service bash and left his childhood sweetheart and children for her.
The pair wed in 2001 before moving to Malaysia in 2005. But she suffered a broken jaw and injuries from his drunken rages.
Samantha claimed during one incident he was sober when he randomly punched her in the face.