A ‘horse whisperer’ has been convicted of murder after she knifed her husband to death at their £800,000 Devon home after he called her fat and lazy.
Christine Rawle, 정품비아그라 70, killed Ian Rawle, 72, by stabbing him in the back with a knife as he pushed a wheelbarrow of horse manure to a dung heap on August 21, 2022.
The couple had been compared to Roald Dahl’s The Twits when she put Viagra in his tea, chilli in his pants and wiped her bottom with his ties.
Exeter Crown Court heard Mr Rawle followed his wife of 29 years for a hundred yards telling her to remove the knife, before collapsing and dying from the wound.
Rawle, who worked with horses as an animal behaviourist and horse whisperer, denied murdering Ian and instead claimed she was a victim of his cruel behaviour.
Christine Rawle (pictured), 70, has been found guilty of the murder of Ian Rawle, 72, at their home in Devon
Ian Rawle (pictured) died at their home in Devon after the alleged stabbing on August 21, 2022
READ MORE: Husband of ‘horse-whisperer’, 70, ‘split her face open with a riding crop and pushed her through a window while angry and salivating before she stabbed him to death’, court hears
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Their youngest son Thomas Rawle, 38, told Exeter Crown Court about his parents, saying that Ian hit Christine with a riding crop, ‘splitting her face open’.
He added that Ian – whom he called ‘dad’, but was not his birth father – pushed Christine through a window at their home when he was ‘angry and salivating’.
Thomas said that Ian was also once ‘ranting and raving’ and used a fire glove to pick up a hot ash tray then threw it at him, striking his leg and leaving a severe burn.
He said Christine came into the room to protect him but Ian blocked her way and punched her in the side of her face. He said Ian screamed at him that he was ‘bone idle, lazy and an idiot’ and Christine went into a walk-in wardrobe to call the police.
But he said Ian pulled out the phone from the wall and they punched and kicked each other, before Ian grabbed her by the hair with Thomas ‘begging them to stop’.
Christine Rawle (pictured) worked with horses as an animal behaviourist and horse whisperer
Christine denied murdering Ian Rawle (pictured) and instead claimed she was a victim of his cruel behaviour
Police officers and cars at the scene in August 2022 in the Devon village of Braunton
Thomas said Christine called him a ‘d***’ and ‘d***head’, and said Ian called her a ‘fatty’, ‘fatso’ and ‘fat pig’ and said she was lazy, overweight and needed to diet.
Thomas said: ‘My dad was the aggressor quite frequently.’
And he also denied claims that she wiped her backside on his ties, saying ‘absolutely not’.
Thomas said life at their home was ‘quite often turbulent with arguments between mum and dad’.
READ MORE: ‘Horse whisperer’, 70, phoned friend after stabbing her husband and told her ‘he is dead’ and said he ‘went on and on at me’, court hears
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But prosecutors claimed the case was ‘as clear a case of murder as you are likely to find’, and said Rawle attacked her husband in a ‘fit of temper’ during an argument about land at home in Braunton.
Rawle did not give evidence during the trial but her legal team insisted she was acting in self-defence following years of physical and psychological abuse from her husband.
The 70-year-old’s ‘best friend’ Ally Gilbert previously told the jury at Exeter Crown Court that the defendant had called her after the incident to tell her what had happened and complain about her husband’s behavior.
Mrs Gilbert said Rawle moved down to Devon in April 2019 and met Ian at a coffee morning when they quickly bonded over a shared interest in horses.
On the morning of Mr Rawle’s death, she told the court the defendant invited her over but she was out wlaking her dogs.
She said: ‘She phoned me about 2.30pm. She said “he’s dead.”
‘I said what happened? and she asked me if I was going to look after the animals.
‘She said he went “on and on and on at me.” It was a very short phone call.’
The home of the Rawles, pictured on the day of the stabbing on August 2022
The moment Christine Rawle, 70, from North Devon, is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband Ian Rawle has been released by police
The bodyworn footage shows Rawle calling her husband a ‘cruel b******’
Mrs Gilbert said Rawle had mentioned divorce to her on several occasions and had a lot of health issues and severe depression at the time.
She said the marriage had become so bad, Rawle would sleep in an area at the top of the stables and only go inside to use the bath and shower when she knew her husband wasn’t there.
The court also heard a series of text messages exchanged between Mrs Gilbert and Rawle in the weeks leading up to the stabbing.
In it, 정품비아그라 Rawle would complain of severe shoulder pain and two days before the killing said she was ‘concerned about getting her divorce done quickly.’
Mrs Gilbert told the jury: ‘She just wanted out and was trying to find a way. Her main concern was always her animals – she did not want to lose her animals.’
On the day itself, she was told Mr Rawle had gone out and asked if they could meet up later.
She added: ‘He would constantly put her down – swear at her a lot. He would accuse her of being stupid, lazy, useless.
‘She was unhappy and she was unwell. She loved him, she wanted to make things work, but it got to the point the only option she saw was divorce.’
Judge James Adkin will sentence Rawle, who remains in custody, at Exeter Crown Court at 2pm on Friday.
