Husband stabs wife of 40 years after fall changes his personality

David Ault, 68, believed his wife Jill Ault, 63, no longer wanted to be with him and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and body with a carving knife in the bedroom of their home at 8.40am on March 5 this year.

Ault cried into a handkerchief at Hull Crown Court as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility.

The court heard he fell down the stairs of the couple's home in 2006 and suffered broken bones and a head injury.

The accident led to a change in his personality and Ault, who suddenly began to have bouts of aggressive behaviour, spent months in hospital learning to speak, read and write again.

He became obsessed with getting his wife to sign documents to release the equity in their three-bedroom home because he believed she did not want him. The former insurance broker wrote notes saying: "I will win.

I will beat Jill", which were found together with a knife wrapped in an envelope.

Ault first become violent towards his wife two days before her death when he had pinned her to a chair and demanded she sign equity papers for their home.

Their daughter Rebecca, 38, heard her mother's cries for help in the couple's house in Pollington, East Yorkshire, and pulled her father away.

Ault left the home but returned later, acting as if nothing had happened, and two days later he attacked her with a knife before calling the police to tell them what he had done.

He claimed his wife had been trying to kill him since 2007 and said they had an argument which had just "festered".

Mrs Ault was still alive when police arrived and was able to tell them her husband of 42 years had stabbed her. She died shortly afterwards on her way to hospital.

Ault is due to be sentenced next month.

The couple, who also have a son Martin, 34, used to own a franchise of an insurance company in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

Det Chief Insp Steve Hibbitt, from Humberside Police's major incident team, said: "From the early stages of this investigation it was clear that Ault had killed his wife Jill.

"The issues around his mental state at the time however, proved more complex and required significant investigation before reaching this conclusion.

"This has been a very difficult time for their children, particularly as this event occurred in the family home and could not have been anticipated.

"Although their lives can never be the same due to the tragic loss of their mother, I hope the timely conclusion of the criminal case will help them in some small way to begin rebuilding their lives."