A horse trainer allegedly stabbed her husband in the back before he begged her to pull the knife out, a court has heard.
Christine Rawle, 70, is said to have stabbed her “defenceless” husband Ian, 72, following a row at their north Devon bungalow.
Jurors heard that as Mr Rawle lay dying she “kicked” the knife “under the stable door” before sitting down and waiting for emergency services to arrive.
Prosecutor Sean Brunton said the couple had a “dysfunctional relationship”, which he said was similar to the main characters in Roald Dahl’s book The Twits.
As the case opened at Exeter Crown Court on Monday, February 26, the court heard how on Sunday, August 24 2022, the couple argued about selling a small piece of land because the defendant wanted the cash for an eye operation “come hell or high water”.
As the pair rowed, Rawle 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”.
Mr Brunton said: “[She] left the knife sticking into his back as she walks off with her husband following her and imploring her to pull the knife out of his back.”
Mr Rawle followed his wife around 100 yards across their land in Kittywell Wood, Knowle, before she pulled it out, the court heard. He then collapsed a short while later and “died from the wound inflicted by that stab”, Mr Brunton added.
Rawle is known on her social media channels as the “horse whisperer”, writing that she is a “registered horse trainer”.
The court heard she was a victim in a “controlling and coercive” relationship, but Mr Brunton told the court the alleged attack was “as clear a case of murder as you are likely to find”, adding Rawle “may be a complex, troubled and somewhat devious woman”.
He said: “If anyone was the bully, we say it was this woman here, although her husband was not a saint, far from it.”
Jurors heard that Rawle had no psychiatric condition to excuse her for the alleged murder of “this unarmed, unprepared, 72-year-old man”.
The court heard the pair had been married for 29 years and Rawle had stabbed her husband twice previously, once with a fork and once with a knife, before the most recent alleged attack.
Jurors also heard how she “stole” her husband from his previous partner after buying a car from his garage. They married in 1995, when he was 45 and she was 41, with three children from a previous relationship.
In 2003, Mr Rawle transferred his property and a 20-acre smallholding he owned into joint ownership with his wife – it is now worth around £800,000.
The trial continues.
