Ex-soldier Collin Reeves stabbed neighbours with Army dagger, court hears

A former soldier stabbed a married couple in their home while their children slept upstairs using the ceremonial dagger given to him when he left the Army, a court has heard.

Collin Reeves is accused of murdering Stephen and Jennifer Chapple in Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset, on 21 November.

Mr Reeves, 34, had been involved in a long-running dispute with the couple over parking spaces, a court heard.

He denies their murder but admits manslaughter.

Bristol Crown Court was told Mr Reeves launched a frenzied minute-long attack on the couple in their living room, stabbing both "multiple times".

Mrs Chapple, 33, suffered six stab wounds to her upper chest and shoulder, causing fatal injuries to a major blood vessel and her heart, prosecutor Adam Feest QC said.

Her 36-year-old husband was found close to the rear door and had also suffered six stab wounds, as well as three other minor injuries.

On the night of the killing, Mr Reeves climbed the fence separating his garden from the victims', and entered via the back door of their home on Dragon Rise.

The jury was shown a clip from the Chapple's back door camera of Mr Reeves climbing their fence and entering via the back door.

A few seconds later Mrs Chapple can be heard screaming in terror.

Mr Feest said neither had any defensive injuries, indicating the speed of the attack.

After the killings, Mr Reeves climbed back over the fence and phoned the police to tell them he had stabbed his neighbours.

Just a few days before the attack, Mrs Chapple was the victim of a "particularly unpleasant verbal assault" by Mr Reeves, Mr Feest said, which was captured on the victims' front door camera.

As well as the parking dispute, Mr Reeves had also been suffering problems in his marriage, with his wife having told him that she wanted to try a trial separation, the jury was told.

"Whether it was this parking dispute, tensions within the defendant's marriage, or a combination of these things which led the defendant to kill his neighbours is unclear," said Mr Feest.

Sandrine Moreira, who worked with Mrs Chapple in the coffee shop of a nearby garden centre, said the victim had been "very scared" of Mr Reeves.

"(Mrs Chapple) was very afraid. She knew (Mr Reeves) would kill her if she would say or do anything against him, she knew he was ex-military," Ms Moreira told the court.

Ms Moreira described an incident in which Mr Reeves had brought his two daughters into the coffee shop and adjusted his chair so he could stare at the counter where Mrs Chapple was working.

Psychiatrist Dr Lucy Bacon found that Mr Reeves was not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the army between 2002 and 2017.

She concluded that he had symptoms of moderate depression, but there was nothing to suggest it undermined his ability to form a rational judgment or exercise self-control, and the defence of diminished responsibility did not apply.

Mr Reeves claims he was suffering an "abnormality of mental functioning" and jurors were told it will be their job to decide whether this was true.

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