Horse trainer who ‘stabbed husband called friend to sort dogs out before speaking to 999’
A woman who fatally stabbed her husband during an argument called a friend to look after her dogs before she took a call from the emergency services, a court heard.
Horse trainer Christine Rawle, 69, and her partner, Ian Rawle, 72 were described as having a “dysfunctional” marriage with prosecutors likening them to the Roald Dahl characters The Twits.
Exeter Crown Court heard that Mrs Rawle allegedly claimed to have put Viagra in her husband’s tea and sometimes put chilli powder in his underwear.
Mrs Rawle, who had three children from a previous marriage, referred to her husband by the nickname “Dick”, the court heard.
At the opening of the trial on Tuesday, jurors were told that Mr Rawle was stabbed in the back with a kitchen knife on Aug 21 2022 as he mucked out the stables at their smallholding near Braunton, North Devon.
Sean Brunton KC, prosecuting, said that when the attack occurred, Mrs Rawle had been on the phone to her adult daughter.
He told jurors that the daughter could hear the couple arguing before the incident in a “he said, she said” disagreement.
Mr Brunton continued: “For the 10 minutes or so she is on the phone, her daughter can hear her parents bickering.
“At the end of which [Mrs Rawle] is heard by her daughter to say, ‘I’ve stabbed him, I’ve stabbed him’.”
Mr Brunton said that after being stabbed Mr Rawle was heard asking his wife to help him.
“He asks her – not unreasonably you might think – to take the knife out of his back”, Mr Brunton continued.
“She runs away, shouting ‘help me, help me’ and he walks after her, no doubt very angry or distressed, with the knife still in his back.
“At some point, he collapses in the garden.”
Rawle: ‘I just snapped’
Within a minute of the fatal attack, Mrs Rawle’s daughter called police and the ambulance service, who then tried to call Mrs Rawle, however she initially didn’t answer.
Instead, while they tried to get through to her, she made a 28-second phone call to one of her best friends in which she asked her to “sort her dogs out”, the court heard.
It was not until 15 minutes later, when the ambulance service called her, that she finally spoke to the emergency services.
Mr Brunton told the jury when the police arrived at the scene the defendant began telling them of threats from her husband, including threatening to shoot and beat her.
While being booked into custody, Mrs Rawle told officers: “I just killed my husband, I just snapped. I should have dropped everything and run.”
During police interviews, Mrs Rawle said she could not remember the attack.
Mr Brunton suggested Mrs Rawle had told an “opportunistic and fabricated story” to the police over what happened.
“She is not an unintelligent woman, she is a highly complicated woman, and we would suggest a manipulative one,” he said.
Jurors heard that friends and family would describe Mr Rawle as a “grumpy old man” who could be rude.
“He would frequently wind his wife up – he made no secret of it – but he was not a monster,” Mr Brunton said.
Mr Brunton said the partner of Mrs Rawle’s youngest son recalled that the first time she went to the couple’s home she witnessed the defendant holding a knife to Mr Rawle’s throat.
“She remembers, later on, this defendant would confide in her that she didn’t really like Ian and loved to torment him,” he said.
“[She said] sometimes she put Viagra in his tea or chilli powder in his underpants or occasionally wipe her backside with his ties out of some kind of spite or joke.
“In short, she remembers that this defendant was proud of, and bragging to her, about how she annoyed Ian Rawle.”
Mrs Rawle, of Braunton, Devon, denies murder. The trial continues.