Penelope Jackson: The calculated murder sparked by bubble and squeak

Penelope and David Jackson has been married 24 years

To their friends and relatives they were a happy, married couple - a "sociable and gregarious" wife and "a quiet, unassuming" husband.

But all that changed on the evening of 13 February when police were called to David and Penelope Jackson's house in the small coastal village of Berrow in Somerset.

Jackson had stabbed her husband of 24 years three times with a kitchen knife - twice as he was on the phone to police calling for help - after a row over serving bubble and squeak with her birthday meal.

Claiming her husband, a retired lieutenant colonel, was coercive, controlling and physically violent, she said she lost control when he called her "pathetic".

She first slashed him across the chest in a bedroom of their home and was heard during the 999 call inflicting the subsequent wounds.

He died from his injuries as she refused to help him, instead telling paramedics "with any luck you'll be too late" as they entered their home.

Jackson denied murder but was convicted by jurors at Bristol Crown Court who returned a majority verdict of 10-2.

She "seemed quite happy" that she had killer her husband, a senior police officer said

The 66-year-old penned a note titled "confession" after the attack at their Parsonage Road bungalow in the quiet village located between Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-Super-Mare.

In it, she wrote how she had "taken so much over the years" and described her husband as a "good daddy", but said [of him] the "mask slipped" and she accepted her punishment.

Police went on to describe the events that night as a "premeditated, calculated murder".

Det Ch Insp Roger Doxsey, from Avon and Somerset Police, said Jackson was very open about what she did and in her own words was "compos mentis" at the time of the killing.

"She was quite clear and composed in her mind about what she had done and she was very open that she had stabbed her husband three times and she seemed quite happy about it," he said.

Bodycam footage from the time of her arrest would go on to lay this bare.

A frank admission of the attack on her 78-year-old husband followed, and she was heard to say: "I should have stabbed him a bit more" and "If I haven't done it properly, I'll be really annoyed".

When she was informed she was being arrested on suspicion of murder, she replied: "Oh good" and went on to say "I've no intention of not agreeing to what I've done.

"I tell you what, you don't get many murders in Berrow."

Jackson wrote a note titled "confession" after stabbing her husband

David Jackson was her fourth husband and she was his third wife.

Her allegations of domestic abuse only came out during the trial, but others painted a different picture of Penelope Jackson.

Mr Jackson's second wife, Sheila Taylor, said it was David who was "frightened" of his wife, who had once threatened to cut his penis off if he ever left her.

"He honestly believed she was capable of carrying out that threat," Ms Taylor said.

'Poke sore spots'

His daughter from his first marriage, Jane Calverley, said the defendant liked making people feel uncomfortable.

"When he was with the defendant he always seemed like he was on edge. I always felt everything had to revolve around Jackson.

"She enjoyed finding people's sore spots and poking them," Ms Calverley told the trial.

She also recalled staying with Jackson and her father when she was having trouble in her own marriage.

Ms Calverley said Jackson had advised her: "It's much easier if your husband kills himself."

David Jackson with his wife Penelope on their daughter Isabelle Potterton's wedding day

Describing the allegations of domestic abuse as "wicked and distressing for the family", Det Ch Insp Doxsey said the jury's task was made more difficult because they had not heard the victim's side of the story.

"David Jackson hasn't been able to respond to allegations of domestic abuse," Det Ch Insp Doxsey said.

"The key issues for the jury were, would they accept there was a long history of domestic abuse, and secondly did that domestic abuse justify her loss of control on that evening?

"The evidence presented was that she was really, really calm and to hear some of the allegations she's made during the trial, it must have been awful for the family to hear that.

"She stabbed him not just once, she went back and stabbed him twice more and she wanted him to die - it's really clear from the evidence."

The couple lived together in the coastal village of Berrow in Somerset

In public, the couple gave the impression of enjoying married life, with a number of friends and relatives providing testimony to the effect they never saw any signs the couple was unhappy.

Daughter Isabelle Potterton, 31, said her parents seemed to be enjoying a happy retirement but often bickered over small things, with her mother's temper flaring and quickly passing, while her father had a tendency to "sulk".

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Son-in-law Tom Potterton told the jury he had seen the couple arguing but it was "relatively short-lived and forgotten about" and nothing he was concerned about.

It was following the row on Jackson's birthday about serving bubble and squeak with a steak dinner that sparked the events of that night.

Angry at the choice of side dish, he got nasty, ruining her birthday, Jackson told jurors.

Soon after, she lunged at him with a kitchen knife.

David Jackson was a retired lieutenant colonel

Julie Smith, an old friend of Jackson's whom she met when they both worked at the Ministry of Defence, said she was "sociable and gregarious", and described Mr Jackson as "quiet, unassuming, sociable," and "a good man."

"They both had quite strong views so they were similar in that respect. They seemed to rub along quite well, just little disagreements like any married couple," she added.

She said she had never seen any aggression between the pair and "they seemed comfortable in each other's company".

Jackson told her trial David Jackson was often violent towards her

A neighbour in Berrow said he often spoke with Mr Jackson, whom he described as being a good friend.

"We got on very well. He'd do anything for me. Most mornings I go out and we'd have a chat for a few minutes and to be honest I couldn't ask for a better friend," he said.

Det Ch Insp Doxsey said the families of the Jacksons were being supported as the case had been "horrendous" for them, and nothing could take away the pain they had endured.