Ex-soldier stabbed wife then boarded train and told conducter he was ‘evil’
A former soldier who stabbed his wife to death before knifing himself several times and boarding a train to London is facing a life sentence.
Phillip Dafter, 33, repeatedly stabbed Diana, 36, with so much force the blade snapped during a frenzied attack at their home in Northampton on October 7 last year.
He then drove to a nearby Asda to buy a new set of kitchen knives and used one of them to inflict a number of wounds to himself.
Badly injured and bleeding, he got a train to London’s Euston Station where he told a conductor he needed to speak to police, saying he was an ‘evil and bad man’.
Jurors at Northampton Crown Court heard Dafter, who had spent some time in the British Army, messaged friends on the journey: ‘Boys and D. Going to jail. I have killed Diana Dafter today.’
Prosecutors said Dafter later told police he had killed his victim ‘in a moment of madness’ before they went to the couple’s home and found her body.
Dafter went on to tell various professionals differing accounts – from claiming the stabbing happened after an argument about a car MOT to ‘voices in his head’ telling him to ‘end it’.
He admitted manslaughter but denied murder, arguing loss of control and diminished responsibility, but was found guilty.
The court heard about how, in the months prior to Diana’s death, the couple’s marriage had deteriorated as Dafter became depressed and dissatisfied with family life.
Prosecutor Gordon Aspden said the atmosphere of resentment worsened when Diana discovered that her husband had been texting a younger woman in Malawi.
She accused Dafter of betraying her and brought up previous infidelities and by September 2022, the couple was on the verge of divorce, jurors heard.
Mr Aspden added: ‘It was against this troubled background that Mr Dafter murdered his wife.
‘To the outside world everything would have appeared unremarkable about the family. However, behind the scenes things were very different.’
After Dafter was discharged from the Army he became a bus driver and then a HGV driver.
He also continued running a business in Malawi and enrolling on a business course at the University of Northampton.
Detective chief inspector Adam Pendlebury said: ‘I am really pleased that Phillip Dafter has been found guilty of murder today and that the jury did not accept his plea of manslaughter.
‘This was an extremely violent and prolonged attack that could not have come about without a very real intention to cause Diana serious harm.
‘It is important to remember Diana Dafter for who she was. And that is so much more than just Phillip Dafter’s wife.
‘She was a loving mother, daughter and friend. A student nurse with a real passion for care, hardworking, and someone very easy to get along with.
‘Though today’s verdict will be a small comfort to her family and those who loved her, I hope it will help to know that Phillip Dafter is now facing an exceptionally long stretch in prison for what he has done.’
Dafter will be sentenced on May 19.
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