What did Christine Rawle do? Devon woman compared to Roald Dahl’s The Twits after allegedly stabbing husband and refusing to remove knife

Christine Rawle, 70, allegedly stabbed her husband, Ian Rawle, 72, in the back in August 2022 at their bungalow in north Devon. Exeter Crown Court heard on Monday, February 26, that the incident took place in a "fit of temper" after "years of bickering".

The court also noted that Ian followed his wife into a field with the knife still stuck in his back, "imploring her to pull it out" before falling down. Christine reportedly pulled the knife out and kicked it under a fence.

Christine Rawle is a mother to three children and describes herself as a "registered horse trainer" and "horse whisperer" on social media. Rawle claimed that she was a victim of an abusive relationship and denied any charges of murder.

Prosecutor Sean Brunton KC opened the four-week-long trial and compared Ian and Christine Rawl to the fictional "dysfunctional" married couple from Roald Dahl's children's novel, The Twits.

“I don’t know if any of you are fans of the author Roald Dahl? One of his best-loved books is called The Twits and it’s about a middle-aged married couple who delight in making each other’s lives as miserable as possible. They are mean to each other but they are also mutually independent: they are an old, crotchety married couple.”

---

Prosecutor in court compared Ian and Christine Rawle to Roald Dahl's The Twits

Sean Brunton opened the trial by describing Christine Rawle's case as “clear a case of murder as you are likely to find” and compared the "dysfunctional" couple to the titular couple in Roald Dahl's 1980 book, The Twits.

Dahl's The Twits tells the story of a dysfunctional middle-aged married couple, Mr and Mrs Twit, who like to play practical jokes on each other. Both are described as "hideously ugly" and torment other animals, such as their pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, and the Roly-Poly bird.

Brunton opened his argument by describing the incident. He said that Christine Rawle "picked up a large, sharp knife and in a fit of temper" while having an argument with her husband. She stabbed him in the back and "walked off" while her husband followed her for "approximately a hundred yards".

Ian reportedly then "collapsed on the ground" and died "due to the wound inflicted by that stabbing". Brunton continued:

“His wife, having removed the knife from his back at some point and kicked it under a stable door, and she then sat down and effectively waited for the police and the ambulance to arrive... called by her daughter.”

As per the prosecution, Christine Rawle and Ian Rawle had an argument about selling a small piece of land as the defendant wanted to use the money to pay for an eye operation.

Brunton also claimed that Christine was a "complex, troubled and somewhat devious woman”, but she had no mental health disorder for the alleged murder. He mentioned that Christine was a "bully" although her husband was "not a saint."

The court also noted that Christine Rawle allegedly stabbed her husband on two other occasions before, once with a fork and another time with a knife. After the final attack in August 2022, Rawle reportedly told her daughter over the phone that she had "stabbed him".

---

Christine Rawle claimed to be a victim of "a controlling or coercive relationship"

The defendant Christine Rawle claimed to be a victim of a "controlling or coercive" relationship. She reportedly told the police that her husband was "violent, sexually abusive, and financially controlling" towards her.

Christine Rawle also mentioned that Ian, whom she was married to for 29 years, was "a narcissist who made her life a misery". She revealed that they were arguing about a Devon smallholding that she wanted to sell to fund her "eye operation", but Ian refused to allow it.

Prosecutor Brunton, however, went against such claims in court and said,

“We say that was not the situation here. This defendant was very far from being a defenceless, timid woman. If anyone was the bully, we say it was this woman here.”

The trial for the alleged murder continues.