Gran stabbed husband through heart before continuing with dinner

A woman who stabbed her husband of 34 years through the heart then went back to chopping onions has been jailed for life for his murder, with a minimum of nine years behind bars.

Teresa Hanson killed Paul Hanson, 54, by plunging the 2cm wide blade into his torso and fatally damaging his heart at their family home during a row, three days before Christmas. She told her murder trial she just wanted him to go away after he began shouting in her face and calling her a “f****** bitch” as she prepared a Mediterranean Tart for their dinner.

The 54-year-old was making dinner on December 28 in the sleepy village of West Cowick, near Goole, East Yorkshire, just prior to the attack, the trial heard. Prosecutors alleged just after 7pm, she shoved the knife into Paul’s heart, severing his largest artery, and leaving blood “spurting out” of his body before he collapsed.

At around 7.05pm, Mrs Hanson phoned an ambulance where she told the call handler she’d stabbed her husband “out of anger” after “having a row”. She then went on to call the police and said that she had stabbed Paul after he came into the kitchen and told her to “f*** off” and called her a “b****”.

Teresa Hanson murdered husband Paul (Facebook)

The woman claimed that she had no idea that her husband Paul was fatally injured, even though the knife would have been contaminated with "fatty deposits" and other material from his badly wounded body, the court. She claimed that she did not hear one shout, groan, cry or moan from him. She was completely unaware that he had left a trail of blood and had collapsed in the dining room, Hull Crown Court heard. She even went back to chopping onions with the same knife.

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During the police interview, Mrs Hanson declined to answer questions and merely gave a pre-prepared statement. She claimed that her husband walked into the knife after she turned round while holding it, but a pathologist claimed that this was "highly unlikely". Mrs Hanson claimed that the stabbing was an accident and that she did not intend to kill or seriously injure him.

Teresa Hanson leaves Hull Crown Court during the trial (PA)

Teresa Hanson was found guilty of murder

Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald KC asked Mrs Hanson why, if the stabbing was just a "terrible accident" and her husband was supposedly "the love of your life", she had repeatedly answered, "No comment" during three police interviews. She claimed that she had sometimes looked at the representative to ask if she should say something in answer to questions, but she was advised to say, "No comment".

Mr MacDonald questioned Mrs Hanson's claim that she had time to carry on chopping and then cooking onions between the stabbing and finally realising that her husband had been seriously injured.

In one chilling court exchange Mr MacDonald said that the cooking time alone for the onions would have been a minimum of at least 10 minutes. Mrs Hanson agreed, but claimed: "I don't know how long it was." She continued to claim that she had gone back to chopping and cooking onions before realising that her husband was badly injured. "That's the truth," she claimed.

Paul Hanson was 54

He was stabbed through the heart (Humberside Police / SWNS)

Mr MacDonald asked: "You carried on with the onions?" Mrs Hanson replied: "Yes." Mr MacDonald said that photographs of the knife showed that it had fatty deposits and other material from her husband on it – and he asked whether she still claimed that she just carried on chopping onions. Mrs Hanson replied: "Yes, because I didn't know."

Mr MacDonald asked: "You carried on with the pastry?" Mrs Hanson replied: "Yes." Mr MacDonald asked whether she had any clue whether her husband had been fatally injured or injured at all. She replied: "No."

Mr MacDonald asked whether her husband gasped or cried out, or gave any sign of pain or injury – especially as the knife had penetrated his heart and aorta. Mrs Hanson said: "No." Hanson was found guilty of murder at Hull Crown Court after jurors deliberated for less than three hours.