Phillip Dafter found guilty of murdering wife by stabbing her repeatedly in Northampton home

A jury has found Phillip Dafter guilty of murdering his wife Diana Dafter after he fatally stabbed her in their Northampton home.

Dafter, aged 32, admitted manslaughter after he stabbed his 36-year-old wife Diana Dafter at their family home in Lawrence Court, Lower Mounts on the morning of October 7, 2022.

The 32-year-old husband has been standing trial for his wife’s murder at Northampton Crown Court for the last two weeks. He denied the murder but instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter, arguing that his responsibility was diminished.

Jurors retired at midday today (April 26) to consider their verdict and, after two hours of deliberation, found Dafter guilty of murder.

Dafter stabbed his wife a total of five times and inflicted around 12 knife injuries all over her body. A pathologist determined that she died from a single stab wound to the heart and found injuries consistent with her trying to push the blade away during the attack.

After fatally stabbing his wife and leaving her in their kitchen to bleed out, Dafter tried to stab himself with the same knife, the court heard. However, the blade broke so he drove himself to Asda to buy more knives.

Dafter stabbed himself in the abdomen several times with the knives and then drove himself to Northampton Railway Station, where he caught a train to London Euston as he bled and drank whiskey.

At Euston Station, he confessed to British Transport Police that he killed his wife.

Dafter was airlifted to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where he was treated for his stab wounds. Just six days after the stabbing, he told a doctor doing a mental health assessment on him that he had been “driven” to killing his wife following an argument about their car and described it as a “moment of madness.”

The court previously heard that Dafter was diagnosed with recurrent depressive disorder and had become “withdrawn” and “irritable” in the months leading up to the killing.

His Honour Judge David Herbert KC told the defendant that his sentence is “likely” to be imprisonment.

Dafter is currently set to be sentenced on Friday, May 19.