Man was ‘very calm’ after wife’s stabbing

Mar 1 2008 by Robin Turner, Western Mail

POLICE who arrested a man accused of murdering his wife after they rowed over their pet dog, said he was “very, very calm and not upset”, a jury heard yesterday.

At Swansea Crown Court, Steven Morgan, 47, denies murdering his wife Rebecca, 34, at their home in Sandfields, Port Talbot, last summer.

Paul Thomas, QC, prosecuting, alleges Morgan stabbed his wife in the heart then left her to bleed to death in an upstairs toilet.

Mr Thomas told the jury Morgan did not summon an ambulance straight away but instead telephoned his 80-year-old mother Marion Foley to tell her what happened. By the time the emergency services arrived on the scene Mrs Morgan was dead.

Yesterday, one of the first police officers to arrive at the home in Marine Close, PC Andrew Everson, said Morgan “was very, very calm and not upset”.

The court has heard Morgan told police he wanted to “get rid” of the couple’s pet dog which they had trouble toilet training, but his wife wanted it to stay.

He claimed to interviewing officers that after hours of rowing he flung open his arms in frustration, forgetting he was holding a knife, and accidentally stabbed his wife in the chest. The case continues.