A nurse who stabbed her husband to death as he lay in bed has been jailed for life.

Rebecca Searing, 52, who must serve 17 years in prison before she can be considered for parole, told a 999 call handler: “I’ve stabbed my husband twice.”

She had also sent a message to someone saying “it’s time to kill”.

She attacked Paul Searing, 57, on 12 February several hours after he returned from the pub to their home in Harlow, Essex, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Judge Christopher Morgan said the defendant, who had also been drinking, helped her husband upstairs then returned downstairs at their home in Ryecroft.

“Shortly before 2.30am you took a knife from the kitchen, you made your way upstairs and you stabbed your husband as he lay in bed,” the judge said.

He said Searing had later said: “Tonight I took my chance.”

The judge said the defendant’s husband had “presented no threat” and “in all probability he was asleep”.

He said Searing had suggested that her husband called her “worthless” or “useless”.

The judge said: “At whatever stage, those words were no justification for what you were to do later on.”

Searing was found guilty of murder after an earlier nine-day trial.

Allan Compton QC, for the prosecution, read a statement from Mr Searing’s sister Karen Krokou, in which she said he had “worked hard as a cabinet maker and took pride in his work”.

She described him as “happy-go-lucky and football-mad, he loved Tottenham Hotspur”.

Mr Searing, who had children, was an “exceptionally loyal man, caring, warm and kind”, Ms Krokou said.

She 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 loves him.”

Ms Wass said it was “a relationship that involved regular domestic violence”.

Searing, who wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit, looked straight ahead as the judge sentenced her to life in jail.

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