Karen Palmer, 47, has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after subjecting her husband to a 'sadistic' 20-year campaign of domestic abuse that included repeatedly stabbing him and forcing him to superglue his own wounds. In court, she mouthed 'sorry' and made a love heart gesture towards her victim.
Abuse Details
Palmer, believed to have a personality disorder, attacked her husband by punching, kicking, or slashing him with a blade while calling him 'useless and pathetic'. He was forced to superglue and tape his wounds closed to prevent the outside world from finding out. In March this year, Palmer repeatedly stabbed him with a knife before making him clean up his own blood. She then threatened to finish the job if the mess wasn't clean by the time she awoke.
The court heard that the victim provided for Palmer financially and that police found collections of 'high value fashion items' packed into cupboards and 'obsessively' arranged. Palmer was jealous of any interaction her husband had with other women, particularly those he worked with. He told police it reached the point where he would walk around and look at the floor.
Court Proceedings
Addressing Palmer at Liverpool Crown Court, Recorder Mark Cooper said: 'This was undoubtedly a case of an appalling history of violence that escalated in seriousness as time progressed. If you continued in this vein this would have resulted in the death of your husband.' He told her she thought her husband was 'weak and useless' but that he was 'far from it', adding that the victim's eloquent description of the violence would live long in his memory.
Reading his own statement to the court, the victim said Palmer had 'systematically destroyed' him over the past two decades and he was now 'forever broken as a person'. He said: 'Part of me will never recover from this. Some wounds I can hide, others I can't.' He added that he suffers from constant headaches and has lost partial control of his right hand due to a deep wound that sliced down to his tendons.
Sentencing
Palmer admitted a single count of section 18 wounding with intent. In mitigation, her lawyer said she had a personality disorder, mood swings, impulsiveness, and underlying mental health issues including OCD and agoraphobia, as well as a traumatic childhood. However, he added: 'There is no justification for this level of offending.'
Palmer was jailed for seven-and-a-half years and handed an indefinite restraining order, which prevents her from contacting her victim and entering Wirral. Recorder Cooper told her: 'You are going to have a long time to think about them while you are in prison.'
