A farmer’s wife who attacked her husband of 44 years with a lump hammer while he watched TV during a venomous divorce has been jaied for four and a half years – but has still walked away with £1.8million settlement.
Pamela Teasdale, 70, attacked Daniel Teasdale, 75, at Burne Farm in Todwick, near Rotherham, on 21 August 2023, while the pair were embroiled in protracted legal battles over their split and the ownership of a converted barn on their land.
She had already won a bumper divorce settlement of £1.8million – although this was still being partly challenged by her husband, whose family had owned the farm for three generations.
At Teesside Crown Court, Judge Francis Laird said that she had hit him seven times on the head in their marital home with ‘intent to cause injury’ as Mr Teasdale watched television.
He added: ‘I do note it happened in the stressful context of a divorce.’
Pamela Teasdale had previously pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and stalking Mr Teasdale while she was on bail.
The sentencing had to be transferred out of the South Yorkshire court circuit as it emerged Mrs Teasdale had a common friend with the Recorder of Sheffield.
The Teasdales had built a life on the farm with their two daughters during their 40-year marriage, as the land had been in Mr Teasdale’s family for three generations.
But in 2018, they filed for divorce and agreed that both should still live in the farmhouse during proceedings.
Their daughter Penelope Smith read a statement on behalf of her father in which he described the impact of the assault.
He said: ‘After I was released from hospital I went back into the kitchen in the house and just thought about how lucky I was to be alive.’
He added that he feared having to sell the farm due to losing ‘so much money over this’.
He said: ‘I’ve lost money as I’ve had to pay contractors to do work that I now can’t do, I have spent £9,000 on CCTV after the attack, and I had to pay Pamela £800,000 upfront as part of our £1.8m divorce settlement.
‘This incident will affect me for the rest of my life.’
Prosecutor Laura Marshall said Mr Teasdale, who married his wife in 1974, had arrived home on the day of the incident and was watching television in the kitchen.
He suddenly ‘felt like he’d had a shock’ as his wife approached him from behind and started hitting him on the head with the hammer.
Mr Teasdale managed to grab the hammer from her and left the house before making his way to their daughter Rebecca Carter’s home nearby.
Mrs Carter’s converted barn, Cow House, was the subject of an ownership dispute between her parents during the divorce proceedings.
The court heard Mr Teasdale’s grandchild was the first person to see him with his injuries and she found her mother to tell her: ‘Grandad’s bleeding’.
Mr Teasdale then told his daughter: ‘She’s hit me with the hammer, she’s mad, she’s trying to kill me.’
The court heard Pamela Teasdale fled the scene but did not realise her car had a tracker on it and she was located near Rotherham.
Police found her in a semi-unconscious state after taking a suspected overdose.
She was taken to hospital and remained unconscious until the following day, when she was then arrested.
She was released on bail but was arrested again on 5 May 2024 on suspicion of stalking when Mr Teasdale spotted her in a car taking photos of him as he worked on the farm.
Ms Marshall added: ‘She said in her police interviews that she did not know he would be there.’
In March 2023 the family made headlines when it was revealed they had run up a £1million legal bill fighting a court battle over the ownership of Cow House, which was valued at £245,000.
A senior judge said it was a ‘tragedy’ the argument was not amicably settled. He added the ensuing four-year legal battle that ‘fractured’ the farming family was ‘one of the most regrettable pieces of litigation that I have ever come across’.
It began when mother-of-two Teasdale demanded a divorce from her husband after 44 years of marriage.
She wanted to continue living at Burne Farm and start a livery business there. But Mr Teasdale wanted her to leave with a lump sum payoff.
At the centre of the dispute was Cow House, a renovated farm building which became the home of their daughter Rebecca, 47, her husband Andrew Carter, 47, and their daughter.
Both parents, who have another daughter Penelope, were happy for Mrs Carter and her family to stay at the cottage, which had been transformed from a dilapidated barn at a cost of £200,000.
A row over the ownership terms of the cottage blew up into a bitter family dispute in which Mrs Teasdale even accused Mrs Carter of planting a listening device in her lounge to snoop on her.
A nine-day High Court hearing followed by a two-day appeal hearing, with all three family members represented by expensive legal teams, led to a total legal bill of £1,048,000.
Mrs Teasdale ended up losing the court battle, with her daughter awarded ownership of Cow House once the remaining £85,000 mortgage was paid off.
After the case Mrs Carter said: ‘As a family we can’t really discuss the situation.
‘Although my mum being sent to prison concludes the criminal part of the case, there are still matters going through the civil courts.
‘It’s been a really acrimonious divorce and there are elements that still aren’t settled.
‘It’s been a long legal process but until it’s over we can’t talk about it.’
