Wife stabbed husband after bubble and squeak row

A woman stabbed her husband to death following a row over serving bubble and squeak with her birthday meal, a court heard.

Penelope Jackson, 66, is accused of murdering her 78-year-old husband David at their home in Somerset.

She stabbed him three times with a kitchen knife after the argument over a family meal, Bristol Crown Court has heard.

Mrs Jackson admits manslaughter but denies murdering her husband.

She told the court her husband had got angry she had prepared a side dish of bubble and squeak vegetables to eat alongside the steak purchased by their daughter to celebrate Mrs Jackson's birthday in February.

"I was absolutely horrified that he was being so nasty. The conversation which had been loud and chatty, just died," she told the jury.

"This was the final straw because in December I had mentally said I wasn't going to put up with it."

After the argument, Mrs Jackson said she had taken a kitchen knife to her bedroom at their home in Berrow intending to use it to take her own life, but instead walked into her husband's bedroom to speak to him.

"I wanted him to say, 'I am sorry, Pen'. He didn't, he just said, 'For God's sake you are pathetic, get on with it and go back to bed'," she said.

"It was just like, 'Pass the sugar'. I was in utter despair. I looked at him and said, 'I have done nothing wrong, admit you are sorry'.

"He literally couldn't be bothered - it was utter contempt."

She said she stabbed Mr Jackson once, and went to the kitchen to write a note confessing to the crime.

After that, she told the court, Mr Jackson went to get the phone to call the police and mocked her as he did, saying - of the stabbing - "you couldn't even do that right, you're pathetic".

Mrs Jackson said her husband continued to goad her as he spoke to the 999 call handler, and she stabbed him again.

When asked by Clare Wade QC, defending, if she had intended to kill Mr Jackson, Mrs Jackson said she had not.

"I just lost all control - I just wasn't even there. I wasn't angry I had just had enough and lost the plot," she said.

She said throughout their 24 years of marriage Mr Jackson was very controlling, telling her what she could and could not watch on the television.

Because of Covid lockdowns, she added, there was "no escape" from him.

The trial continues.

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