A woman stabbed her estranged husband twice after he revealed he had their rescue dogs put down, a court has heard.
Claire Bridger, 64, is said to have left Keith Bridger with life-threatening injuries after lunging at him with the blade, hitting him in the chest and abdomen.
The defendant ‘became hysterical’ after driving to the address where her husband was staying to ask him to pay for their next mediation session and learning that both dachshunds had been euthanised, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Peter Gair said: ‘She was screaming “You’ve killed my dogs”.’
Bridger got out of the car with a knife in her right hand and stabbed her husband twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen, Mr Gair added.
She also allegedly bit him on the arm as he lay on the floor bleeding and crying out for help.
Neighbours rushed over when they became aware of what was happening and tried to wrestle the knife from Bridger before calling the emergency services.
Part of the 999 call was played to the jury, during which the caller told the operator: ‘There’s a woman with a knife.’
Bridger appeared to be screaming at her husband ‘You killed my dogs’ and calling him a ‘horrible man’.
Mr Bridger was also heard to say: ‘She stabbed me.’
When police arrived, the defendant allegedly told them ‘he killed my dogs’ before adding: ‘I just saw red’.
The couple had been together for almost 40 years but separated the year before the alleged incident on the night of July 17 last year, Norwich Crown Court heard.
Mr Gair said they had taken in a rescue dog at the marital home in Taverham, Norfolk, in March 2020, days before the first lockdown during the pandemic, before homing another one a year later.
The pets, described as ‘quite noisy’ and ‘bitey’ and having ‘behavioural issues’, were being looked after by Mr Bridger after the relationship foundered.
But he wasn’t allowed to keep them permanently at his one-bedroom accommodation in Bramerton and attempts to rehome them had proved unsucccessful.
‘He felt there was only one option and that was to have them put down,’ said Mr Gair.
The defendant had not been made aware of the decision and demanded ‘Where are my dogs?’ when she arrived at her alleged victim’s home to discuss the mediation session.
Mr Bridger’s ‘severe’ and ‘life-threatening’ injuries were treated by a neighbour who is a doctor before he was taken to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Bridger admitted he had not told his wife that they had been euthanised but insisted he believed she already knew that he had done so.
PC Frances Peters, a Norfolk Police dog handler who was the first officer on the scene, said the defendant was sitting in the driver’s seat of her car when she arrived but then emerged, telling her: ‘I am a bad lady.’
Bridger, who had worked as an NHS school nurse, appeared compliant and was wearing a blood-stained white T-shirt and light-coloured trousers with no shoes or socks on her feet.
She added: ‘She was very upset and she smelled of alcohol. You could smell it on her breath.’
Video clips from the officer’s bodycam showed her explaining to PC Peters how her husband wanted to continue their mediation but she could not afford it.
One of the clips played to the jury featured Bridger telling PC Peters that she had gone to ask him to pay for more mediation at the end of the month and that he had agreed.
She said in the footage: ‘I said “What about the dogs?” and he said “I have put them down, you know I have, and I am sorry”. I just saw red. I just saw red.’
Bridger also told the officer that her husband had been ‘aggressive’ towards her and she had not left her home for weeks ‘because of what Keith did to me’.
Roy Hagland, who had rented an annexe of his home in Bramerton to Mr Bridger for around three months, said he was watching television when he and his wife heard a commotion outside.
In a statement read in court, he said he went out and saw Mr Bridger lying on the driveway with a woman on top of him holding a knife.
‘I could hear the female shouting “You have murdered my dogs”,’ he told police.
Mr Hagland and neighbour David Yeoh, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, were eventually able to ‘prise the knife from her’ and put the six-inch blade in a sandwich bag.
He added: ‘Keith remained on the floor and I could see he had two stab injuries. I could see blood on the floor.’
His wife Susan said in her statement that the woman on top of Mr Bridger was screaming words similar to: ‘You killed my dogs… You are a nasty man.’
She added: ‘The female continued to scream non-stop until the police arrived.’
Mr Yeoh who works at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said he went outside after hearing a noise and saw Keith was on the floor having a kerfuffle with a female I didn’t recognise’.
He added: ‘She was determined to stab Keith. I saw her biting and hitting Keith.’
Heather Jenkins, a friend of Bridger who had worked with her as a school nurse, described her in a statement as ‘lovely and such a nice lady’.
She said she had earlier received two calls from Bridger saying she was worried about her dogs because her husband was threatening to have them put down.
Bridger called her in a ‘shocked and distraught’ state later in the evening to say that she had stabbed her husband, she said.
Hospital consultant Jeremy Lewis said Mr Bridger had suffered ‘severe injuries which were life threatening’, including a punctured lung.
Bridger, who looked emotional in the dock as the case was opened yesterday, denies attempted murder.
The jury have been told she has admitted an offence of wounding with intent.
The trial continues.
