Fixer TV star ‘smoked a cigar after stabbing partner to death’

John Butler - owner of Kettley’s Furniture store and an undertakers firm - is alleged to have carried out the attack two years after appearing on a national reality TV show which featured one of his businesses.

Leeds Crown Court was told Butler, 62, repeatedly stabbed long term partner Pauline Butler in the chest and neck after losing his temper at the flat where she was living on Cherry Lea Court, Rawdon, on April 14 this year.

Mrs Butler, 61, had recently moved out of the family home, nearby on Larkfield Road, Rawdon, after telling Butler she no longer loved him.

Butler is accused of carrying out the attack and leaving her body on the floor of the living room before taking her pet dog and locking the door behind him.

Michelle Colborne, QC, prosecuting, said Butler then returned to his home and told son Richard: “You need to call the police. I think I have killed your mother.”

Richard and another of the couple’s sons, David, raced to the flat while Butler stayed behind and opened a beer and smoked a cigar

David kicked down the door of the flat and discovered his mother in the property.

A post mortem showed she had died as a result of stab wounds to the neck and chest.

A pathologist said some of the injuries suggested there had been “deliberate slicing.”

Describing the attack, the prosecutor said: “While at the flat he lost his temper - old fashioned good and simple. He picked up a knife and stabbed and killed her in what the prosecution say was a sustained attack.”

She added: “The defendant contends that he had no such intention, but was reacting to an unfolding and heated situation, during which he lost his self control.”

Miss Colborne said the former couple had met around 30 years ago. They were not married but Mrs Butler had changed her surname by deed poll and they had three sons together.

In recent years they had lived separate lives at the house at Larkfield Road, eating meals separately and watching TV in separate rooms.

In previous years Mrs Butler had become ill with cancer and it had led to bad feeling between the Butlers.

Mrs Butler had confided in her eldest son that she had felt unsupported by her partner during her treatment and had she had “disengaged” from him.

Miss Colborne said: “She had a further cancer scare more recently and, having received the all clear, it was part of her thinking process, the catalyst, to move away from the defendant.”

Mrs Butler moved out of the family home in March this year.

In the weeks leading up to the incident she had been pressured to return to live with him.

During a row two days before the incident she had told Butler that she did not love him.

The prosecutor added: “She had repeatedly told her sons and the defendant that she had no intention of returning to him.”

Kettley’s Furniture, in Yeadon, featured in BBC Two show The Fixer in 2012.

The show stars businesswoman Alex Polizzi and attempted to revive the firm’s fortunes.

Mr Justice Edis asked jurors if they remembered seeing the show before they sworn.

He then warned them not to to attempt to find footage of the programme on the internet.

David Butler said he was never informed his parents weren’t married until police told him after identifying his mother’s body.

He said: “She kept things from me to protect me and I would understand that having a daughter of my own.

“They had been together for the best of 40 years. It breaks my heart that she never told me this because I was always there for her.”

The jury heard how the night before the alleged murder Pauline had babysat for her granddaughter when David Butler handed her £100 from the defendant which was to go towards her maintenance.

“One hundred pounds was given to her and she went mad and said she wanted half of the house”, the eldest son told the court.

“The house is worth about £500,000 to £550,000. When she was given the money the night before she said she thought it was an insult.”

He added: “I remember Mum expressing an intense anger. When I returned to my home three hours later with my partner I tried to cuddle her, but she wouldn’t hug me. It was the last time I ever saw my mother.”

David Butler told the court his youngest brother Paul had visited his mother that evening while she babysat her grandchild.

He said: “While we were out Paul came round and she told him she felt her sons were ganging up and taking my father’s side. She was very, very angry when she left my house on the Sunday night.

“She expressed hatred of my father. She refused to even touch or give me a hug.”

He added to the court while his father sat crying in the dock: “I’m not here to defend my father, I’m not on the side of my mother either.

“It’s a tragedy and I’m here to tell the truth on both parts. What happens happens. I know I have lost both my parents.”

Butler denies murder. The trial continues.