Knife accused: “Victim stabbed himself”

Tuesday 29 July 2014

A woman alleged to have stabbed her estranged husband with a steak knife after a heated argument on Christmas Eve told a jury yesterday that he caused his own injuries to get her in trouble.

Marivic Vautier (34), who faces an assize trial in the Royal Court, denies committing a grave and criminal assault on Kevin Vautier at their home in Westley Court, St Saviour, on the evening of 24 December 2013.

It is claimed that she attacked him twice with the knife, but Mrs Vautier alleges that his injuries were self-inflicted.

Yesterday, the court heard that Mrs Vautier had moved out in early December, but had gone to the flat “by arrangement” on Christmas Eve in order to deliver Christmas presents for the family.

An argument developed, Crown Advocate Julian Gollop told the court, and as she was leaving she had twice attacked her husband with the knife, causing wounds to his face, hand and chest.

“The second attack resulted in him being stabbed in the right side of the chest and that knife remained embedded in his chest” said Advocate Gollop. It was only removed after Mr Vautier had been taken to hospital.

Subsequent x-rays had shown that the knife had “bounced” off the ribs and was lying “superficial to the chest underneath the skin”.

However, during cross-examination, Defence Advocate Emma Wakeling disputed Mr Vautier’s version of what had transpired that evening and claimed that he had “enticed” the defendant up to the flat and had then attempted to keep her there while he quizzed about her new boyfriend.

Advocate Wakeling also cast doubt on the ability of Mrs Vautier, who is less than 5ft tall, to inflict injury on her 6ft husband.

“She made her way to the front door and then, at the front door, there was an exchange,” said Advocate Wakeling, “and Mrs Vautier left after that exchange of words, nothing else.”

And she questioned the unusual angle of the knife in Mr Vautier’s body and suggested that he had “threaded that knife carefully into your own skin” in order to “get Mrs Vautier into trouble”. 

The trial continues.