'He's dead': Boy's chilling Fortnite messages after dad stabbed
A woman knifed her husband to death with a 15cm kitchen knife while their son played on his PlayStation upstairs, a court has heard.
Natasha Welsh, 43, is accused of stabbing her husband of 25 years Martin Welsh, 47, at their home in Greyhound Hill in Hendon, north west London on October 26 last year – he was pronounced dead early the next day.
The mother-of-two denies murder and an alternative count of manslaughter, claiming she has no memory of the incident.
The Old Bailey heard on Monday that both she and her husband had been drinking heavily before the killing.
The jury heard that their son 21-year-old son Kyle has mental health problems including acute ADHD and that Welsh acted as his full-time carer.
He had been messaging his sister Charlie, who did not live with the family, and her boyfriend while playing Fortnite on his PS4 about the row raging downstairs.
“Things kicking off. How do I avoid it even with my music on?” he wrote.
“Just play and forget I said anything. Everyone has to deal with their troubles.”
He later said “those d***heads” needed to learn how to handle their alcohol. Kyle then complained his parents were calling his name.
A few minutes later he typed: “Call 999 mum stabbed dad and he died. Please, please, please, please.”
“He’s dead by now and I’m going to kill her,” he added.
Jurors were warned that in the 999 call he made when he finally found the phone, Kyle could be heard laughing but that was due to his ADHD.
He told the operator: “My dad’s on the floor with a stab wound in his shoulder and my mum’s acting like she’s done nothing.”
Mr Welsh was later found to have died from a single stab wound to the chest.
Following her arrest, Welsh denied having any memory of the killing.
In a later statement she said: “The last thing I remember doing is standing in the kitchen talking to him, I really can’t remember what happened.”
“I accept I must have been the one who stabbed Martin.”
Prosecutor Peter Little QC said the defendant did not positively suggest that she acted in self-defence or in any way that she lost her self-control.
The trial is expected to last seven or eight days.
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