‘Horse-whisperer’, 70, ‘had attacked her husband twice before stabbing ‘defenceless’ 72-year-old in the back during row at their bungalow after years of bickering’

An enthusiastic rider stabbed her husband in the back in a ‘battle’ after years of ‘bickering’, a court heard yesterday.

Christine Rawle, 70, attacked ‘defenceless’ Ian Rawle, 72, after an argument at their remote bungalow in north Devon.

Mr Rawle then followed his wife into a field with the knife still in his back and ‘begged her to pull it out’ before collapsing, jurors at Exeter Crown Court were told.

Rawle, who claims she acted after years of suffering at the hands of her ‘nasty and bullying’ husband, is said to have then removed the knife and kicked it under a stable door.

She appeared in the dock yesterday with her hair tied up and wearing a gray jumper, black trousers and a jacket, after pleading not guilty to murder.

The mother of three, who described herself on social media as a ‘registered horse trainer’ and is known as ‘the horse whisperer’, will argue she was the victim of a controlling and coercive relationship.

Police officers on the scene at their remote home in Kittywell Wood in Knowle, North Devon, on August 24, 2022

Opening the case, prosecutor Sean Brunton KC said the couple had a “somewhat dysfunctional relationship” but it was “as clear-cut a case of murder as you are likely to find”.

He said Rawle was arguing with her husband when she picked up a “large sharp knife.”

“And in a fit of rage, without any warning, she stabbed it in his back as he walked away and left the knife stuck in his back as she walked away while her husband followed her begging her to pull the knife out of his back. ‘ he said.

‘He followed her for 100 yards across their field in North Devon and then fell to the ground and died a short time later from the wound inflicted by that sting.’

Mr Brunton said she then removed the knife and “at one point kicked it under the stable door” before sitting down to wait for police and ambulance to arrive after her daughter called the emergency services.

Mr Brunton said Rawle may be a “complex, troubled, somewhat devious woman” but that she stabbed “this unarmed, unprepared 72-year-old man” at their home in Kittywell Wood, Knowle, North Devon, in August 2022.

He said they had been married for 29 years, adding that some marriages are far from happy. Rawle’s defense will be that she was the victim of a controlling and coercive relationship.

Exeter Crown Court also heard Rawle stabbed her husband twice more before killing him

Earlier that day, Rawle (pictured with a horse) is said to have called her daughter, who said her mother was “despondent” and was talking about divorcing her husband.

Police officers at the scene in Devon on the day Mr Rawley was found dead

He asked whether “her husband was so mean, so bullying and so abusive to her that she was somehow compelled to act as she did and to justify such an act against a defenseless husband.”

But he said she could have simply run away instead of stabbing him in the back and stayed with her many friends or relatives.

He said the Rawles bickered and harassed each other and were petty and unkind to each other, but Mr Brunton said: ‘If anyone was the bully it was this woman.’

He said it was Christine Rawle who was manipulative and making demands, not the other way around.

The Rawleys’ home, pictured on the day of the stabbing on August 24, 2022

Police officers at the couple’s home on August 28, 2022 after Mr Rawley was allegedly stabbed

Mr Brunton said both Rawles were previously married and Mrs Rawle had three children from her first marriage.

Ian Rawle’s previous wife and another long-term partner said there was nothing strange, unpleasant or bullying about him or his behavior towards them. The jury heard Mr Brunton say: ‘On the contrary, he was gentle, thoughtful, hardworking and a decent person.

‘He was not a saint, far from it, he had his faults, but a straightforward man.’

Mr Rawle owned the village shop and garage in the nearby village of Braunton until it was sold ten years ago.

The process continues.