Horse expert jailed for life after murdering husband at their home

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A horse expert who stabbed her husband in the back at their home has been jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years in prison.

Christine Rawle, 69, killed Ian Rawle, 72, as he mucked out her horses at their property in Braunton, Devon, on August 21, 2022.

She denied a charge of murder, claiming she was acting in self defence following years of domestic abuse, but was convicted of the charge by a unanimous jury following three hours and seven minutes of deliberations.

Judge James Adkin, sentencing Rawle at Exeter Crown Court on Friday afternoon, rejected her allegations that Mr Rawle was a “serial domestic abuser”.

The judge described how Rawle had “violently thrust” a knife with a 12.5 inch blade into her husband’s back during an argument about the sale of land on their £800,000 home.

Mr Rawle followed his wife of 27 years for a hundred yards telling her to remove the knife, before collapsing and dying from the wound.

Judge Adkin told Rawle: “It was a wholly unexpected attack when he was completely defenceless.”

He described how Rawle fatally stabbed her husband at about 2.17pm, with the council worker surviving for a period of time.

Paramedics could not detect a pulse when they attended the property at 2.42pm, and Mr Rawle was pronounced dead at 3.15pm.

After stabbing her husband, Rawle walked down steps, across a meadow and to where the car was parked.

The judge told her: “You said to the police that you were frightened of your husband. But he was a 72-year-old man with a knife in his back. He wanted you to help him. But it seems to me you refused to do so.”

Rawle moved the knife under a barn door, and phoned a friend to look after her animals – saying “he’s dead”, before shutting her dogs away.

The judge said: “You appear to have prioritised them over your husband as he was slowly dying.

“Twenty minutes later, you did phone an ambulance. When they arrived, there was little they could do to save him.

“I cannot sentence you on the basis that he would have lived had you personally sought medical assistance, there’s no evidence to that effect. But I can sentence you on the basis his suffering was prolonged.

“I’m sure you intended to kill.”

The judge said Rawle knew the knife had recently been sharpened, did not assist her husband after the attack, and had sent a text message that morning reading: “I hope the c*** dies”.

In text messages on the morning of the murder, Rawle told a friend: “I’m fed up of waiting, everything is waiting, waiting, waiting”.

Rawle did not give evidence during her trial, with her legal team instead arguing that she had been the victim of coercive and controlling behaviour, as well as physical abuse, from her husband.

“I’ve no doubt you were frustrated about selling that piece of land and you felt your husband was standing in the way of your future,” the judge said.

“You stabbed your husband to death in a fit of temper for that reason.

“I’m also sure that in statements you made to the police, to the defence psychologist and to the defence psychiatrist, you chose to deliberately misrepresent the character of Ian Rawle to seek to persuade this jury that you were a victim of domestic abuse amounting to coercive and controlling behaviour.

“Some of that material was wild exaggeration and some of your lies caught up with you. The jury saw through that.

“Ian Rawle was not perfect. The evidence showed that he was obstinate, sometimes grumpy, he could shout, he was stuck in his ways and he was old fashioned in terms of how he wanted a relationship with his wife.

“But he was in no way the serial domestic abuser you sought to portray him as.”

The judge said Rawle experienced depression and post traumatic stress disorder but in his view, the conditions had only a “modest effect” on her culpability for the killing.

He added: “The main reason you killed your husband was that you have an ungovernable temper.

“It is suggested that I take into account that you were the victim of coercive and controlling behaviour as mitigation.

“I accept there was verbal aggression. Other witnesses spoke of Ian Rawle being occasionally unpleasant to you. But you could be physically violent to him.”

During the trial, prosecutors said the couple had a dysfunctional marriage and likened them to the Roald Dahl characters The Twits.

Sean Brunton KC, prosecuting, told how one witness claimed Rawle told her she enjoyed “tormenting” her husband and would put Viagra in his tea, chilli powder in his underpants, and wipe her backside with his ties.

Jurors heard differing accounts of Rawle and her husband, with one neighbour describing Mr Rawle as “vindictive” and unpleasant to his wife.

Rawle’s son Thomas told how Mr Rawle subjected his mother to years of abuse, including physical assaults, tried to control her by hiding her car keys and called her “fatty, fatso and fat pig”.

A friend of Rawle described how she waited on her husband “hand and foot” but he would accuse her of being lazy and useless, with Rawle confiding that she wanted a divorce.

However, one work colleague of Mr Rawle told how she was concerned he was the victim of domestic abuse and tried to find him a support service.

She recalled seeing Mr Rawle with a black eye, which he said was caused by his wife. On one occasion, Rawle rang the workplace and told the witness: “Tell Ian to look in the mirror because he isn’t Kevin Costner”.

A mechanic who knew Mr Rawle since the 1980s told how Rawle would describe her husband as lazy, and when he asked why she called him Dick, she replied “because he’s a f****** dickhead”.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Ilona Rosson of Devon and Cornwall Police, described the investigation into Mr Rawle’s death as “complex”.

“The family and friends of Ian have had to endure a tragic loss and I hope the outcome reached and sentence given will bring some closure to them,” the detective said.