‘I’ve just stabbed my husband twice… he’s dying’: Harrowing 999 call from crying nurse, 52, who murdered her partner as he slept is revealed – as she is jailed for life
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT:
- Rebecca Searing, 52, stabbed her husband Paul to death at their Essex home
- The nurse asked police at the scene if she was going ‘to get 25 years for this’?
- Chelmsford Crown Court heard Searing had been a victim of domestic violence
- She was today jailed for life to serve a minimum term of 17 years
A nurse who told a 999 call handler ‘I’ve just stabbed my husband twice… he’s dying’ was today jailed for a minimum of 17 years.
Rebecca Searing, 52, told call handlers that she had stabbed her husband Paul, and they should send police and an ambulance.
Searing was today jailed for life to serve a minimum term of 17 years following her trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
The court heard that after police arrived, Searing said: ‘I can’t believe I’ve just done this’ and ‘I will go down for this.’
Rebecca Searing, 52, stabbed to death her husband Paul at their home in Harlow, Essex early in the house of February 12
Police and paramedics rushed to the scene and placed Mr Searing in the back of an ambulance and raced him to hospital where he was pronounced dead
She even asked a police officer: ‘I’m going to get 25 years for this, aren’t I?’
She attacked 57-year-old Paul Searing early on February 12, several hours after he returned from the pub to their home in Harlow, Essex, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
Judge Christopher Morgan said the defendant, who had also been drinking, helped her husband upstairs then returned downstairs at their home in Ryecroft.
‘Shortly before 2.30am you took a knife from the kitchen, you made your way upstairs and you stabbed your husband as he lay in bed,’ said the judge.
He said Searing had later said: ‘Tonight I took my chance.’
She had also sent a message to someone saying ‘it’s time to kill’.
The judge said the defendant’s husband had ‘presented no threat’ and ‘in all probability he was asleep’.
He said Searing had suggested that her husband called her ‘worthless’ or ‘useless’.
The judge said: ‘At whatever stage, those words were no justification for what you were to do later on.’
Searing was found guilty of murder following an earlier nine-day trial.
Prosecutor Allan Compton QC read a statement from Mr Searing’s sister Karen Krokou, in which she said he had ‘worked hard as a cabinet maker and took pride in his work’.
She described him as ‘happy go lucky and football mad, he loved Tottenham Hotspur’.
Mr Searing, who had children, was an ‘exceptionally loyal man, caring, warm and kind’, Ms Krokou said.
She described the defendant’s 999 call as ‘chilling’, adding: ‘She may have been a good nurse but that doesn’t make her a good person.’
Sasha Wass QC, mitigating, said the married couple had a ‘complex relationship’.
She said: ‘She loved him despite the complexity of that relationship and she still loves him.’
Chelmsford Crown Court heard that the couple had a tumultuous relationship with allegations of domestic violence
Judge Christopher Morgan told Searing that her husband had not presented a threat to her on the night she killed him
Ms Wass said it was ‘a relationship that involved regular domestic violence’.
Searing, who wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit, looked straight ahead as the judge sentenced her to life in jail.
She must serve 17 years before she can be considered for parole.
Judge Christopher Morgan acknowledged that the relationship between Rebecca and Paul Searing had been ‘complicated’ with acts of violence carried out against her, along with an act of violence against Paul when Rebecca Searing struck him with a pool cue. He accepted that she was a victim of domestic violence, however, he dismissed any notion that on the night in question Rebecca Searing had been under any threat.
He said: ‘Even if there had been verbal abuse constantly from 2018 to you killing your husband, you weren’t dependent on your husband and you could have left the relationship. But I accept that it’s difficult when you claim you still love your husband and still attach yourself emotionally.
‘Your husband came home shortly before 11pm. You assisted him up to bed. If he had threatened you at that stage when he was upstairs you could have left and sought help, but you didn’t do so. You went upstairs shortly after 2.30am and you stabbed him.
‘He presented no threat. You would recognise even if you were in drink that he wasn’t going to present any violent harm to you that evening.’ Judge Morgan gave Searing a minimum of 17 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Lydia George said: ‘My thoughts are with the family and loved ones at this time. ‘While this does not bring Paul back, I hope that today’s sentence can provide his family with some justice and they can begin to re-build their lives.
‘Rebecca Searing took Paul’s life in a moment of extreme violence. ‘This case highlights how quickly incidents of domestic violence can escalate and how serious the consequences can be.’
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