Northants Police officer '˜smacked' wife with paint pot after she lunged at him with a knife, court hears

Adrian ‘Otis’ Goldsmith, aged 50, is currently on trial after he was charged with the murder of his wife Jill, aged 49, in the porch of their home next to Wootton Hall police headquarters in Northampton on March 26, last year.

Giving evidence at Stafford Crown Court, Goldsmith described his wife as a “whirling dervish” who aimed punches and kicks at him before threatening him with a kitchen knife.

Goldsmith said he had become involved in an argument with his wife after he returned from visiting his son on the morning of March 26.

He said the physical violence started after his wife threw a glass at him and then hit herself on the head with a mallet.

Goldsmith said: “She Just tossed the mallet down towards me. I could not believe what I had just seen. I said ‘what is this all about’. It just seemed the weirdest thing for anybody to do.”

Goldsmith said he was “angry” at his wife and was calling her a “stoner”, due to the fact she had been smoking cannabis.

The court heard Goldsmith then got his wife in a headlock and said he tried to stop her harming herself with the glass.

Goldsmith said the couple then came apart and his wife went to the kitchen and he shouted that he could not stay with her and was planning to leave.

The jury heard his wife then walked towards him with her head bowed and her arms in closed in front of him “like a monk”.

Goldsmith said: “I just saw a knife come out right in front of me. I thought she was going to cut herself in front of me. I picked up the mallet. I was not threatening her but had it loose down by my side.

“She brought knife out and lunged towards me in the chest, throat area. I leapt out of the way and smacked her arm with my arm.

“I hit her over the head. I had the mallet in my left hand. It was more of a reaction than any retaliation, out of instinct. We both looked at each other in stunned silence.”

Goldsmith said he then threw the mallet down to “show he wasn’t a threat”.

But he said his wife then came “running, screaming” towards him and he grabbed both her arms to stop her stabbing him.

Goldsmith told the court he then tried to keep his wife off balance while he remained his grip on both her arms.

The court heard the couple then both lost balance and fell to the floor near the front door.

Goldsmith said he started to get “very scared” and grabbed whatever was close to his hand, which was a paint tin.

He said: “She shouted ‘you’ve ruined my life’. It Just felt like she was going to pounce. Her face was distorted, snarling. That’s the bit that scared me.

“I’ve grabbed the tin and really hit her over side of head with it. I wanted to knock her out the way. I smacked the tin into her head.”

Goldsmith said he then fell to the floor with his wife and tried to “pin her down” as he realised she still had the knife.

He said his wife scratched his face and “grabbed him in the groin area”.

Earlier in the day, Goldsmith had told the jury he had been physically attacked by his wife on a number of occasions.

Goldsmith said his wife physically assaulted him during their honeymoon in Spain in May 2014.

He said it had happened after they had gone to a cafe where he had bought an ice-cream. Goldsmith said he had offered his wife some of his ice-cream and she had then started shouting at him.

Goldsmith said: “She said ‘you know I only like vanilla’. People on other tables were looking at us. We paid the bill and it was like a stony silence. I was embarrassed.

“Outside she then launched at me. She was punching and screaming at me. She said ‘don’t you humiliate me in public again’.”

Goldsmith denies a charge of murder. The trial continues