A spurned husband who killed his wife in a ‘brain

A spurned husband who killed his wife in a ‘brainstorm’
was  jailed for five years by an Old Bailey judge.

Peter Knott, 50, begged wife Joan to return to him, but
she laughed in his face.

He silenced her giggles by stabbing her eighteen times
with their son’s lock knife in the kitchen of her sister’s home.

Knott then threw a coat over his wife’s body and told
police officers who rushed to the scene: ‘I’ve killed her.

‘
The driver was cleared of murdering his 49-year old
wife, but convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished
responsibility, after he told the court his depression flew out
of control when his wife goaded him.

Knott claimed he could remember little of the killing
and told the court: ‘It was like I wasn’t really there.

‘It was if someone else was doing it and I was just
watching,’ he said.

And a top psychiatrist told the court Knott was suffer
ing from temporary mental illness brought on by severe depression
when his wife walked out.

Knott told the court: ‘I just used to feel totally
useless.

‘
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Blofeld told Knott: ‘Your
marriage must have been under a great deal of strain for both you
and your wife.

‘I have no doubt at all that at the time you suffered
some sort of brainstorm.

‘But the fact remains you did in fact take a life.

It’s
not only her tragedy, but a tragedy for your son and a tragedy
for you.

‘You have to live knowing you have killed her, knowing
what a monstrous thing it was to do.

‘
The court heard Mrs Knott, who was on crutches after
breaking her hip, had walked out of the family home in May
Avenue, Canvey Island.

On Decmber 10 last year Knott went to see her at the
sisters home in White Hart Lane, Wood Green, hoping to persuade
her to return.

Knott had been working in Belgium and brought duty
free cigarettes, hoping to tempt Mrs Knott with them.

Mrs Knott’s sister, Doris Faulkner chatted with the
couple in the kitchen then left them alone to sort out their

differences.

Knott told police how he tearfully begged his wife to
come home.

When she shrugged her shoulders and laughed he drew
their son’s lock knife from his pocket.

Minutes later Mrs Faulkner heard her sister screaming

and ran to the kitchen.

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‘She saw the defendant attacking his wife with a
knife,’ said prosecutor Miss Ann Goddard.

‘She saw Mr Knott pull his wife from her chair and he
went on stabbing her.

‘
Mrs Faulkner ran to telephone the police and officers
found Knott still in the kitchen in a state of shock.

His wife who was on the floor with a coat over her, had
been stabbed twelve times in the front, three times in the legs
and three times in the back.

She had already died from massive internal bleeding.

Mr Rock Tansy, QC defending said Knott’s life is in
‘tatters.

‘
‘He was a highly thought of man, a good father with an
impeccable character.

‘He is a person very unlikely to ever offend again,’
added counsel.

Knott shut his eyes as the sentence was announced then
stared upwards as he was led to the cells.