Jackson – Accused of stabbing husband – Said she was ‘too cowardly’ for years to stand up to his ‘abusive’ behaviour as she says ‘it’s a bit like MeToo’
- Penelope Jackson confronted her husband David in spare bedroom in Somerset
- She told court he ‘was always a threat’ and she struggled to stand up to him
- Ms Jackson said she was inspired by MeToo to finally confront her husband
The wife accused of stabbing her husband to death after a row over bubble and squeak has told the court she ‘didn’t have the guts’ to stand up to his abusive behaviour.
Penelope Jackson, 66, stabbed David Jackson, 78, three times with a kitchen knife hours after they quarrelled during a luxurious family meal to celebrate her birthday.
She told Bristol Crown Court it was ‘a bit like MeToo’ after saying she was previously ‘too cowardly’ to confront the retired lieutenant colonel.
Mr Jackson was first slashed across the chest by his wife in a bedroom of the home they shared in Berrow, Somerset, on the night of February 13 this year.
He was then stabbed twice more in the kitchen while on the phone to the emergency services, Bristol Crown Court heard.
Penelope Jackson, 66, stabbed David Jackson, 78, three times with a kitchen knife hours after they quarrelled during a luxurious family meal to celebrate her birthday
She told Bristol Crown Court it was ‘a bit like MeToo’ after saying she was previously ‘too cowardly’ to confront the retired lieutenant colonel
Jackson admits killing her husband saying she lost control when he called her ‘pathetic’ in the bedroom and later taunted her in the kitchen.
In cross-examination, Christopher Quinlan QC, prosecuting, suggested to the defendant she had ‘deliberately lunged’ at Mr Jackson’s chest with the knife in the bedroom and he was of no threat to her when she attacked him a second time.
She replied: ‘I saw blood, I left immediately, I was horrified.
‘I didn’t intend anything. I had lost the plot, I had reacted. I knew I stabbed him – it was the blood – I was horrified, I left. There was not an intent.’
Referring to the 999 call, in which an injured Mr Jackson could be heard summoning help, Mr Quinlan said: ‘He was not threatening to you when you stabbed him again?’
Jackson replied: ‘It was that face.’
Jackson admits killing her husband saying she lost control when he called her ‘pathetic’ in the bedroom and later taunted her in the kitchen
Mr Quinlan said: ‘He was calling for help. You did it twice when he was calling for help, Mrs Jackson. No threat to you, was he? Was he?’
Jackson replied: ‘He was in my… taunting me… I never thought… I lost it.’
Breaking down in tears, she added: ‘I didn’t know what I thought, I wasn’t thinking. He was always a threat when he had that face on. You can’t see him looking at you like that.
‘I told the truth, I keep telling the truth.’
Mr Quinlan said that in her defence case statement there was no mention of Mr Jackson being ‘face to face’ with her in the kitchen.
A judge this week authorised the release of the 18-minute 999 call that was played to the jury alongside bodycam footage of her arrest as the prosecution case ended
‘Lost control in the bedroom, regained control, lost control again in the kitchen?,’ he asked.
She replied: ‘It’s not a regaining or losing. I was absolutely horrified, the whole thing.
‘The next bit… I must, that was the end of it and then it got worse, and he came back and I lost control so badly… I don’t remember.’
Mr Quinlan asked: ‘Had you written (the note) before you went into the bedroom?’
The defendant replied: ‘No, because I never left the bedroom after clearing up. I lay on the bed, don’t know for how long for, to kill myself because I can’t see a way out.’
Mr Quinlan asked: ‘The only two opportunities were either before you went into the bedroom or it was a five to 10 minute gap between the two incidents.
She killed him with a kitchen knife after claiming she could not put up with him anymore. Pictured: During her arrest in video released earlier this week
The defendant has told the jury her husband was coercive and controlling and also physically violent towards her – pushing, shoving and strangling her.
She explained Mr Jackson valued loyalty and she would have felt disloyal if she disclosed to anyone the abuse she had suffered at his hands.
The court heard she had called the police in December last year when he smashed a glass door with a poker during a row over the TV remote control.
‘I covered up for my husband for years,’ she said.
‘This was my first tentative steps, to stop the cycle of anger and violence done to me.
‘It was not every minute of every day or every week – the violence was sporadic, the nastiness, being called ‘a thing’, even using the TV remote, I couldn’t do nothing.
‘I was tentatively trying to take back control, not immediately but bit by bit – I had lost all control. I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything.’
She added: ‘David could be charming and loving and always so caring after a particularly violent event.
‘Yes, I could have left, why I didn’t I have asked myself a million times.’
Mr Quinlan suggested Mr Jackson was not controlling, as his wife went regularly to the gym and would go shopping with friends.
She replied: ‘Not all the time, if he didn’t want me to do it, I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the guts and was too cowardly to address it head on.
‘It’s a bit like MeToo and it takes other people to step up and for you to say that happened to me.’
Son-in-law Tom Potterton told the jury he saw his wife’s parent’s bicker and argue but it was ‘relatively short-lived and forgotten about’ and nothing he was concerned about.
Asked if he ever saw Mr Jackson hurt the defendant, Mr Potterton replied: ‘No, he once or twice raised his hand in frustration and on no account did I envisage he would do anything, and he never did.’
Mr Potterton explained to the jury that he and his wife joined Mr Jackson and the defendant for the birthday meal via Zoom, so he witnessed the argument over the bubble and squeak.
‘David said that if Penny didn’t stop going on about it, he would walk away and my wife started to diffuse the situation and change the conversation,’ he said.
He told the court the meal ended at around 7.30pm before dessert because the Jacksons had another argument when their iPad ran out of battery.
‘(David) said something along the lines of, ‘You can’t admit when you are wrong’. He was really calm, he just said it as anybody would,’ Mr Potterton said.
‘Penny was upset. She looked as though she had been crying.’
Jackson denies murder.
