A woman accused of stabbing her husband to death as he slept sent a chilling 10-word message to her mother following the horror incident.
Christine Kekkonen, 36, has claimed she "can't remember" the moment she killed Henri Kekkonen, her Finnish husband of 15 years, at their home in Baltonsborough, Glastonbury on May 9. Bristol Crown Court heard extracts from a police interview in which Mrs Kekkonen answered "no comment" to most questions posed to her, but said she remembers "going into the kitchen" on the night.
She told officers: "The only thing I remember is going to the kitchen to smoke because that is the only place I am allowed to smoke." But the court also heard that Mrs Kekkonen texted her mother immediately after the incident telling her to send police to her home as she had "done something awful".
Mrs Kekkonen allegedly wrote in a 10-word text: "Please send the police here now, I've done something awful." She sent her mother the message at around 4.20pm on the day of the killing, contacting her mother initially from her own phone, and later her husband's. The court heard she then called her and said: "I think I’ve killed him, I’ve stuck a knife in his neck."
Police attending the Kekkonen home in Glastonbury found Mr Kekkonen dead at the scene from a single stab wound to the neck, jurors heard. Investigators did not uncover any evidence of any other significant injury, including signs of blunt force trauma or defensive wounds.
They noted heavy blood staining on the couple's bed at their Dunford Terrace bungalow, and recovered a knife from the floor of the bedroom on the left-hand side of the bed. Jurors heard that Mrs Kekkonen has a history of mental illness, and she told police she occasionally "dissociates" and struggles to recall events of the day her husband was killed.
She said during her police interview that, if she doesn't take her psychiatric medication she becomes "very ill", adding that she may also experience "blackouts and panic attacks". She said: "I’m not actually in control of myself. It feels like I can be physically present but my mind is not present if that makes sense."
She added: "Sometimes I don't remember a lot of the things and I get very scared when it happens. When I come to, I think I'm in the house that I grew up in." The court heard that, when she was taken into custody by officers, Mrs Kekkonen said: "I don’t deserve to be made comfortable considering what I’ve done." And she later added: "I couldn’t help it." But she later denied saying this to police.
The trial continues, and is expected to last 10 days.