Rebecca Shearing, 52, who must serve 17 years in prison before she can be considered for parole, told a 999 operator: “I stabbed my husband twice.” He had also sent a message to someone saying “it’s time to kill”. He attacked Paul Shearing, 57, on February 12, several hours after he returned from the pub at their home in Harlow, Essex, Chelmsford Crown Court heard. Judge Christopher Morgan said the defendant, who was also drinking, helped her husband upstairs and then returned downstairs to their home in Rycroft. “Just before 2.30am. you took a knife from the kitchen, went upstairs and stabbed your husband as he lay in bed,” the judge said. He said Shearing later said: “Tonight I took my chance.” The judge said the defendant’s husband had “made no threats” and was “probably asleep”. He said Searing had suggested her husband had called her “useless” or “useless”. The judge said: “At any stage, those words did not justify what you had to do later.” Image: Paul Searing described in court as ‘happy and football mad’ Searing was found guilty of murder after a nine-day trial. Allan Compton QC, for the prosecution, read a statement from Mr Searing’s sister, Karen Croce, in which she said he had “worked hard as a cabinetmaker and was proud of his work”. She described him as “happy and football mad, he loved Tottenham”. Mr Searing, who had children, was an “extremely loyal man, caring, warm and kind”, Ms Crocou said. He described the defendant’s 999 call as “chilling”, adding: “She may have been a good nurse but that doesn’t make her a good person.” Sasha Wass QC, mitigating, said the married couple had a “complex relationship”. She said: “She loved him despite the complexity of that relationship and she still does.” Ms Wass said it was “a relationship that involved regular domestic violence”. Searing, who was wearing a gray prison jumpsuit, stared straight ahead as the judge sentenced her to life in prison.
