Woman who stabbed husband claimed widespread abuse, court hears
Penelope Jackson, 66, is accused of murdering her husband in the kitchen of their bungalow in Somerset
A woman who stabbed her husband to death left a note saying she had suffered widespread abuse over the years and accepted her punishment, a court heard.
Penelope Jackson, 66, is accused of murdering her husband of 24 years, retired Army Lt. Col. David Jackson, in the kitchen of their bungalow on February 13, according to Bristol Crown Court. She admits manslaughter but denies murder.
The jury previously heard that David Jackson, 78, managed to call 999, telling the operator his wife had stabbed him, before screaming in pain as she allegedly stabbed him for the final time at their home in Berrow, Somerset.
On Tuesday, the jury, made up of four men and eight women, heard that police found a note written on a notepad next to the telephone when they arrived at the scene.
It read: “To whom it may concern: I have suffered a lot of abuse over the years; please check my history.”
He continued: “But he was a good father. However, tonight his mask fell. That was unforgivable. I accept my punishment, may he rot in hell.”
Sheila Taylor, Jackson’s ex-wife and second wife, testified at the trial on Tuesday.
Taylor told the jury that David Jackson left her in 1993 after revealing he had had an affair with the defendant, whom he had met while working for the army in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Taylor told the court that she had maintained contact with her ex-husband and that, in the mid-1990s, he seemed “very unhappy.”
Taylor claimed that David Jackson feared that Penelope Jackson would “destroy” him and “ruin his career.”
Taylor said she asked David Jackson why he didn’t leave her, to which he replied, “He’ll do a Bobbitt on me.”
Taylor told the jury that it was a “current” reference to an American woman who had amputated her husband’s penis.
Asked by prosecutor Christopher Quinlan QC what David Jackson looked like when he said this, Taylor replied: “I was very scared. I thought she was capable of doing it.”
Earlier in Tuesday’s hearing, Quinlan read to the court a statement Jackson had given to police after her arrest, in which she claimed David Jackson had been abusive and controlling toward her.
Penelope Jackson claimed the “extreme violence” began after the suicide of the victim’s son from her first marriage in 1998.
He claimed the February attack was triggered by an argument over food during a video call the couple had with Jackson’s daughter, Isabelle, and son-in-law.
He claimed he had gone to bed with a knife under his pillow for protection.
The statement read: “When I woke up, I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore and I intended to take my own life, even cutting my wrists.
I told David I’d had enough and was going to kill myself, and he said, ‘Just do it.’ Then I thought, ‘Why should it be me?’ It’s you.”
Jackson claimed the victim had lain down on the guest bed and charged at him to stab him.
During the 18-minute 999 call, which was played to the jury on Monday, David Jackson can apparently be heard screaming in pain as the defendant stabbed him.
Jackson tells the call center operator that he stabbed him because he “thought he couldn’t do it.”
