Revealed: Nurse's matter-of-fact 999 call after killing husband

A nurse who stabbed her husband to death as he lay in bed confessed what she had done in a phone call to emergency services.

Rebecca Searing, 52, told a 999 call handler: "I’ve just stabbed my husband twice."

The phone call was revealed after she was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 17 years in prison for murdering her husband Paul Searing at their home in Harlow, Essex.

Searing was found guilty following a nine-day trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on 25 August and was sentenced at the same court on Wednesday.

Watch: Nurse’s 999 call after killing her husband in their bed

She attacked Mr Searing, 57, on 12 February, several hours after he returned from the pub to their home in Ryecroft, the court heard.

After the assault, she called the ambulance service, admitted what she had done, and requested help from paramedics.

When officers attended and spoke to her about what happened, she seemingly admitted to knifing Mr Searing, stating: “I can’t believe I’ve just done this” and “I will go down for this”.

He was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries later.

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Judge Christopher Morgan said the defendant’s husband had “presented no threat” and “in all probability he was asleep”.

He said Searing, who had also been drinking, helped him upstairs and then returned downstairs.

“Shortly before 2.30am you took a knife from the kitchen, you made your way upstairs and you stabbed your husband as he lay in bed,” said the judge.

He added Searing had later added: “Tonight I took my chance.”

She had also sent a message to someone saying, “it’s time to kill”.

The judge said Searing had suggested that her husband called her “worthless” or “useless”.

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Prosecutor Allan Compton QC read a statement from Mr Searing’s sister Karen Krokou, in which she described the defendant’s 999 call as “chilling”, adding: “She may have been a good nurse but that doesn’t make her a good person.”

Ms Krokou described her brother as “happy go-lucky and football mad" and said he loved Tottenham Hotspur.

She said the dad was an “exceptionally loyal man, caring, warm and kind”.

Sasha Wass QC, mitigating, said the married couple had a “complex relationship” and it was “a relationship that involved regular domestic violence”.

She added: “She loved him despite the complexity of that relationship and she still loves him.”

Searing, who wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit, looked straight ahead as the judge sentenced her to life in jail.

She must serve 17 years before she can be considered for parole.