A retired doctor, fuelled by decades of pent-up jealousy, attacked her husband's former lover with a kitchen knife after arranging to meet in her Cambridge University rooms, a court heard today.
"Stab, stab, stab and stab again. Slash and stab. Neck, face, head, chest and back," said Karim Khalil, QC, prosecuting, describing the attack by Dr Alethea Foster on Julie Simpson at Lucy Cavendish College.
Ms Simpson, 44, suffered 17 separate knife wounds and was blinded in one eye. In chilling testimony to Cambridge Crown Court today, she described how the repeated knife blows from her "gleeful" assailant felt like punches.
The court heard how Dr Foster, 61, was consumed with anger and regret over the state of her marriage and her husband's alleged affairs.
Miss Simpson, a mature student who had a relationship with John Foster, 58, when they both worked for the BBC and later a close family friend, became the focus of her jealousy when she discovered a series of indiscreet e-mails between the two.
Mrs Foster e-mailed Miss Simpson in October and asked for a meeting to clear the air, the court heard. Unknown to Miss Simpson, she took with her a kitchen knife wrapped in tissue paper.
Giving testimony to the court, Miss Simpson described how she had made Mrs Foster a cup of coffee and answered questions about her relationship with Mr Foster.
"She was very calm, very quiet. She seemed relaxed." She said Mrs Foster had asked "when John and I were sleeping together".
Miss Simpson continued: "I said our relationship consisted of the occasional meal, the occasional gin and tonic and the occasional Daily Telegraph crossword."
She said without warning, Mrs Foster climbed out of the chair and punched her in the stomach.
"She went down to her bag on the floor then she was up out of the chair and she hit me," said Miss Simpson. "It felt like a punch."
She added: "And then I saw there was a knife in her hand. I didn’t know what she was doing. She had been sitting talking and now she was stabbing."
Miss Simpson went on: "I said, ’Jesus, Ali!’ And she said, ’yes’. I would say it was triumphant. I cannot remember every word. It was ’something something. This is how it feels. See how it feels’. She was smiling. She just looked very pleased with herself. Everything was gleeful really.
"I don’t remember the number of the stabbings. Just the stabbings."
Miss Simpson said she fought her way out of the door of her room and into a corridor to summon help. "You don’t feel the stabs when you are being stabbed. You would think you would but you don’t. I said ’someone call the porter’ and then I started screaming."
Miss Simpson went on: "There was just the two of us for what seemed like a long time... I was quite tired and I couldn’t breathe very well and I thought I was probably going to die in the corridor. I couldn’t stand up any more so I went down to my knees and I felt so tired. I just thought it would be so much easier if I went to sleep here - although you are not supposed to go to sleep. I know that."
Miss Simpson said another student came to her aid and other people arrived. She said she heard Foster say: "She has been screwing my husband...I told John he couldn’t leave me."
Mr Khalil had earlier told the jury that the Fosters had been married for 35 years and had two grown-up children. He said Mrs Foster was an intelligent lady who had studied English and philosophy before going on to become a podiatrist, working at King’s College Hospital, London. She retired in 2004 but continued to speak and lecture on her subject.
"During her years of marriage she became suspicious that her husband was having affairs," said Mr Khalil. "In particular he had an affair with the victim in this case Julie Simpson. It seems in recent years their relationship had become less of a sexual one and more friendship based."
Mr Khalil explained that the Fosters stopped having sexual relations 15 years ago because Mr Foster, a retired political correspondent for the BBC, said he was impotent.
Mr Khalil said Miss Simpson had been introduced to the Foster family over the years, had become friends with some members of the family and had gone on holidays with them.
"It is not difficult to understand the anger that grew in the mind of this defendant as she reflected back on recent years," said Mr Khalil.
"Anger at herself for putting up with a marriage that she saw as a failure over a long period of time. Anger at her husband for having affairs, particularly with this lady. Anger inevitably with Julie Simpson for being the other woman."
He said that last year Mrs Foster and her husband had discussed Miss Simpson after Mrs Foster came across details of her husband’s email account in April 2005. Mr Khalil said Mr Foster had sought to assure her that the relationship was no more than a continuing friendship.
In a flurry of e-mails read out to the court, Mr Foster warned his one-time lover that his wife did not believe that their friendship was not sexual, and wanted to arrange a meeting. Miss Simpson responded: "Given the most exciting thing we do is discussions together over a Daily Telegraph crossword clue I’m at a loss what to say to her. Perhaps you could enlighten me."
Mr Khalil said Mrs Foster had become "increasingly angry and frustrated" and had decided she wanted to confront Miss Simpson directly. "She contacted Julie Simpson by e-mail and asked to meet for a civilised conversation," said Mr Khalil. It was this meeting that led to the most appalling consequences."
He said that Mrs Foster travelled from her home in Kent to Cambridge by train. "She had brought something with her. She put it in her bag before leaving home. It was a kitchen knife," said Mr Khalil.
"She had hidden that knife in kitchen tissue paper. Of course Julie Simpson was not to know."
He added: "The meeting was held in Julie Simpson’s room and very quickly that knife was taken out and used to nearly fatal effect on Julie Simpson."
In later police interviews, Mrs Foster told detectives that she had not intended to harm or kill Miss Simpson, but was going to kill herself in Miss Simpson’s room.
But he said that Mrs Foster kept a diary which the prosecution argued gave clues to her state of mind. In the diary, Foster had said she was feeling "raw inside".
Mr Khalil added: "It is plain from the diary entries that she felt betrayed, humiliated and angry. She was not prepared to be left alone by her husband. Somebody in this trio had to go."
He went on: "Only because of the swift medical attention that Julie Simpson did receive is she able to give evidence to you."
The trial continues.
