A midwife murdered her musician teacher husband, who received 68 separate injuries at the heavily bloodstained Buckinghamshire home they shared with their four children, a court heard today.
Hannegret Donnelly, 54, confessed to striking 55 year-old Christopher Donnelly with a rolling-pin at the Berryfields, Aylesbury house, the jury were told.
She called 999 on March 31, last year, twelve hours after Mr. Donnelly, a biochemistry graduate, died of bronchial pneumonia on the bathroom floor while his entire family were at home.
Prosecutor Eloise Marshall QC told the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court jury: “In the last year of his life Mr. Donnelly was subjected to repeated serious domestic abuse.”
She said the victim had 68 exterior visible injuries, plus fractures to both shoulders; his back; neck and voice box.
“The majority of the injuries were caused by blunt force trauma, mostly to the head, neck, shoulders and back.
“The Crown’s case is Mrs Donnelly murdered her husband by repeatedly inflicting injuries on him that resulted in his poor health and eventual death.”
The court heard paramedics felt the Christian family, who had become increasingly isolated, were strangely detached from Mr. Donnelly’s death.
“They noticed his head was covered in multiple wounds, gashes, about twenty in all,” added the QC.
The defendant told the paramedics they occurred two weeks previously. “I did hit him over the head with a rolling pin after a falling out,” she told them.
“Christopher wouldn’t have wanted to go to the hospital. He doesn’t like doctors,” added Mrs Donnelly.
Old blood staining from the victim was found on the walls and ceiling by the front door, hallway, staircase, dining-room, kitchen and bathroom, plus on radiators, furniture, window blinds and wall tiles.
Mr. Donnelly was described as a “talented musician” who studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and played the saxophone and clarinet.
He met German-born Hannegret in 1992 and the couple’s four children are aged between fourteen and twenty-two years-old.
“Their household was a complex and strange one and even though they seemed a conventional family over the years they withdrew from life outside and the children were home taught.”
Family members described the defendant as “controlling” the jury were told, with the couple having “lost a grip on reality” and talking about “living in end times.”
When Mrs Donnelly was asked by the 999 operator why she waited so long to raise the alarm, she replied: “We wanted to grieve.”
Paramedics arrived at the cluttered home and felt a strange atmosphere, explained Ms Marshall. “The defendant did not appear panicked or distressed.”
They noted Mr. Donnelly’s nose was flat, with a large wound across the top and his face and ears were deformed.
The jury were told the blood staining was consistent with more than one strike with a blunt object and Mrs Donnelly repeated her rolling pin story to the police, but now said it was months previously.
“She told the police she hit him with the rolling pin in self-defence and said: ‘I had to defend my corner somehow.’
“Even if violence occurred in 2015 as she said it is minimal compared to the injuries she inflicted on her husband.
“He appears never to have retaliated when she inflicted these injuries.”
Police found her diary, which included an entry in January, last year, which translated as: ‘I didn’t let him go to the toilet.’
“This exhibits the control she had over Mr. Donnelly,” said the prosecutor.
Mrs Donnelly has pleaded not guilty to murdering her husband on March 30, last year and inflicting grievous bodily harm, with intent, between March 30, 2016 and March 30, 2018.
The trial is expected to last three weeks……..
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