Colleagues of a solicitor who was killed by his new wife after she knifed him through the heart said they had warned him to "get away", a court has heard.


Criminal defence lawyer David Edwards, 51, who worked in Burnley, Blackburn and Chorley courts, died after he was stabbed with a kitchen knife by new bride Sharon Edwards, 42, after returning from Majorca, Manchester Crown Court was told.

A jury of eight women and four men were told that "domineering" and "possessive" Edwards had beaten her husband throughout the course of their brief relationship.

Within two months of the couple marrying in Las Vegas in June 2015, Mr Edwards was dead.

Edwards, who "perhaps quite liked the idea of being Mrs Edwards, a solicitor's wife", would finish a bottle of wine before her husband went to work and would get taxis to the supermarket to buy more, the court heard.

 

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But Mr Edwards being made redundant and the likely future effect on his income or status "may well have been relevant to Sharon Edwards' increasing resentment towards him" the jury was told.

Mr Edwards had been an instructing solicitor for barrister Joanne Shepherd, whose statement was read to the court.

In it, she said: "He described her (Edwards) as a complete nightmare and she was bleeding him dry, spending all his money."

The court was told that he would often turn up to work battered and bruised after coffee tables and ashtrays were launched at him - but Mr Edwards had refused to report Edwards to the police.

Edwards denies murdering him on August 23 2015 at their home in Chorley, Lancashire, following a night of drinking in which she allegedly stabbed him for the first time - before he sustained a further, fatal, injury the next day.

Another former colleague, Christopher Hall, said he had many conversations with Mr Edwards about the blonde defendant, having noticed his black eyes, burst lips and claw marks, which he would pass off as "accidents".

Mr Hall told the court: "I asked him many times; he 'fell down the stairs'. He walked into a door on at least two occasions. One occasion, a garage door had come up and hit him.

"He once confided in me that Sharon had assaulted him. I think it was her elder daughter who had called the police."

Mr Hall said that Sharon was arrested, David had refused to make a statement, and Sharon had given a "no comment" interview.

He said: "David's words were, as a defence support, he 'knew the system'.

He said that if he refused to make a complaint and Sharon refused to answer any questions to police, no action could be taken by police."

Mr Hall added: "I told him to just get away and get to his parents, just by himself, and to think things through. He half listened but half didn't. He said that she wouldn't let him."

Mr Edwards' neighbour of seven years Kathleen Hurst said that when Edwards moved in she noticed the rowing between them.

Prosecutor Anne Whyte QC asked: "What, if anything, changed after Sharon moved in?"

Ms Hurst replied: "The atmosphere changed, it became argumentative. It is a quiet close where we live and we don't have much noise, but in the night time we could hear arguing going on from the house."

Ms Whyte asked: "What could you predominantly hear?"

The witness replied: "A lot of shouting, female, I never heard David's voice raised. I never heard David raise his voice in all the time that I knew him."

Another neighbour said that while Mr Edwards became more dishevelled, Edwards' appearance "never changed - she was always made up and her hair done".

Edwards was to tell police they had rowed on the morning of his death, claiming he had taken a knife from the kitchen before she took it off him and he had walked towards her.

She told police that he had "begged" her not to call for an ambulance and she was to later find her husband dead in bed.
 

Yesterday, the court heard how the 'jealous' newlywed Edwards stabbed her  husband with a kitchen knife after he was told he was being made redundant.

 

The court was told Sharon Edwards, who was described as domineering, possessive and very jealous, had often beaten her husband.

Prosecuting, Anne Whyte QC said: “Less than two months after the wedding she killed him at home with a kitchen knife during a domestic argument.”

The court heard Mr Edwards had even been recorded saying his new wife could knock him out with one punch and that she hit rather hard.

Jurors were told Mr Edwards had been under the thumb after meeting his wife-to-be in June 2014.

He was said to have been besotted with the defendant, who appeared in the dock wearing a white shirt and black blazer. On the first day of her trial, Sharon Edwards formally entered a plea of not guilty.

The court heard that, upon returning from Spain on August 22, the couple had argued and Sharon Edwards’ 19-year-old daughter, who is to be a witness for the prosecution, saw Mr Edwards in the bathroom, calling for help and cleaning blood from his chest.

Jurors were told that when the daughter confronted her mother, Sharon Edwards said she had put a knife to his chest but had not intended to hurt him.

The court heard that Mr Edwards would not say what had happened and despite him bleeding from the chest and leg and being visibly injured, the couple went out to the pub.

Jurors were told the couple were in a habit of drinking too much but that Mr Edwards’ consumption increased after meeting his partner and, with it, his injuries increased.

The court heard the pair were later found arguing in the street where Sharon Edwards was behaving in an accusing way before being taken home by police.

The next morning Mr Edwards was found dead in bed with visible injuries. Blood was also found on the carpet and in the kitchen.

During the couple’s relationship, Mr Edwards’ friends and colleagues were said to have been very concerned for his welfare.

Others said they started to see a decline in his appearance, his professionalism and his self-respect.

Miss Whyte said he would appear at court looking dishevelled and had disclosed to some colleagues that he had been hit with objects including a coffee table and an ashtray and had his ear bitten. Before his holiday he was asked not to come back into work.

The court heard that on August 23, Sharon Edwards went to see her neighbour at around 8pm but returned five minutes later hysterical, saying her husband was not breathing.

Upon the arrival of paramedics, who pronounced him dead, a small puncture wound to the left side of Mr Edwards’ chest was noted.

A Home Office pathologist concluded that he had sustained an 8cm long and 2cm wide knife stab wound travelling through the chest wall and into the heart sac, which had proved fatal.

He had a 1.5cm shallow wound from the previous day and his body was said to have been covered in bruises and abrasions.

Stab wounds were also present in the thigh, knee and finger, and there was a shallow wound to his scalp.

There was evidence he had not died immediately.

Sharon Edwards said he took a knife from the kitchen and waved it at her before she took it off him and he walked towards her.

Miss Whyte said Sharon Edwards told police: “I did not know he had walked into it until I saw the blood."

Case continues