Love cheat killed wife when she told him to leave

A “POSSESSIVE and jealous” husband savagely stabbed his wife to death after carving her initials onto his own chest and scrawling a note begging her not to leave him, a court has been told.

Steven Parker, 24, is accused of murdering his wife Jane, 25, when she tried to get him to leave their marital home in October last year.

The court was told that the couple had been childhood sweethearts and had three children together but that their marriage began to fall apart after he had affairs and began ignoring his young family to play computer games..

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Hull Crown Court was told yesterday how the 25-year-old’s brother-in-law had wrestled Parker away from her after the attack.

Mrs Parker had taken her sister’s husband Chris Wood to her home in Scunthorpe for moral support on October 27 after telling her husband she wanted to leave him. When the pair arrived Parker told Mr Wood that the couple were talking things over and locked the door.

The court was told that just seconds later Mr Wood heard Mrs Parker’s screams as her husband of four years stabbed her in the face and neck with an eight-inch knife and continued to attack her as she lay prone on the floor.

Mr Wood said he managed to wrestle Parker clear and then began to try resuscitating her.

She died in hospital less than an hour later.

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Giving evidence at Parker’s trial at Hull Crown Court yesterday, Mr Wood broke down as he said: “I was just going there for support and to make sure he left.

“We got there, Jane went inside and I was going to follow her. Steve had his head round the door and said: ‘Can we just have a word?’ as if they were going to sort things out.

“He didn’t seem like the Steve I knew. His eyes seemed glazed over and he seemed cold. I just thought ‘fair enough’ and the door locked.

“I then went to ring my wife Leeann to say how weird it was Steve had locked the door and with that Jane started screaming.

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“I looked through the dining room window and Jane was laid on her back trying to hold him back. Steve was knelt on top of her and he was hacking up and down at her with a kitchen knife. Eventually I forced the front door open, but he didn’t even look at me, he just continued stabbing Jane.

“I went straight across to him, put my right hand round his waist, got my left hand on his hand on the knife and felt it come out of her neck. Just before I got hold of him I heard Jane say: ‘I’m dead’. We were scuffling and we ended up pressed against a door.

“He eventually stopped struggling and was saying Jane’s name, and he knelt down saying: ‘What have I done. What have I done?’ and started crying.”

Parker, who is on trial for murder, has admitted manslaughter on the basis that he “lost control” but denies murder.

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The court has been told that Parker had had two affairs and his wife had retaliated by having an affair herself. Prosecutors said that the day before Mrs Parker was killed her husband had raged at her for being a few minutes late picking him up from work and had smacked her on the head – convincing her she had to dump him.

Hull Crown Court heard that on the day she died she had texted him, saying: “I will always love you but you have hurt me too much”, adding that she would never forgive him for one of his affairs, and asked him to pack his bags ready to leave their home.

Simon Waley, prosecuting, said paint factory worker Parker had then scratched “I love JP”, using a heart symbol, on his chest and wrote a note begging forgiveness. Mr Waley said: “This was a possessive and jealous man perhaps enraged by a woman who was gaining the confidence to leave him.”

The trial continues.

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