Woman who stabbed husband with vegetable knife and claimed he fell is jailed

A woman who killed her elderly husband with a vegetable knife and falsely claimed the fatal stab wound to the chest was accidental has been jailed.

Daryl Berman, 72, told police that David Berman, 84, had stumbled while taking her lunch tray into the kitchen of their home in Prestwich, Manchester, and had fallen on the knife.

She claimed he said "It's OK, I slipped" before she heard a groan and ran into the kitchen to discover him face down and covered in blood.

While her account was initially accepted, suspicions were raised about the injury, and a post-mortem examination later concluded it was non-accidental.

Retired joiner Mr Berman also had a stab wound to his right middle finger, which prosecutors said was a common self-defence injury.

Paramedics attended the couple's address on 13 March last year after Berman called 999 but were unable to save him.

Police officers spoke to Berman on the driveway of her home and said: "You don't think I murdered him, do you?"

Last week, she was convicted by a jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court of murder.

Sentencing Berman to a life term with a minimum of 12 years, Judge Tina Landale said it appeared Mr Berman had ended up on the floor and his wife had "stabbed him in the chest with severe force".

Speaking to Berman, she said: "You have never given a truthful account of what happened. I am satisfied something must have happened to cause you to lose your patience or temper and begin to attack David with the knife you had earlier used to prepare your lunch."

"Whatever the trigger was is unknown.

"I am sure you immediately regretted what you had done and tried to help him and called for an ambulance.

The judge added: "This was a domestic incident against a background of a decades-long happy marriage."

Both were said to have "adored each other", and there were no apparent problems between them to the outside world, the court heard.

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The defendant was said to be "coping" with Mr Berman's health issues, including a recent diagnosis of vascular dementia, and "by all accounts was nurturing and caring towards him".

After she rang for an ambulance, the defendant also called her husband's children so they could see him as he fought for his life.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, Mr Berman's son, also named Daryl, said he knew his father's life was in danger by the "tone of her voice".

He said when he arrived it "strangely seemed like a crime scene already", adding he has found what he saw in the kitchen "difficult to shake out of my head".

He told the court that Daryl Berman seemed "fairly calm, considering what had happened".

Mr Berman's daughter Debbie Davis said: "I know my father was 84, but he still had some good years ahead of him. I feel bereft and cheated."

Mr Berman's wife was convicted in a retrial after a previous jury was discharged in December when they could not reach a verdict.

She showed no reaction on Friday as she was led from the dock to begin her sentence.

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