BUT former a soldier killed a married couple in their home using he was presented with a ceremonial dagger on leaving the army in dispute over parking spacecourt heard.
Colleen Reeves on trial at Bristol Crown Court of in murder of his neighbors Stephen and Jennifer Chapple in Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton in somerset, on evening of November 21.
Reeves, also of Dragon Rise, got involved in old dispute with pair over designated parking on in new-build Corps development court heard.
In the prosecution’s opening statement, Adam Fist QC told jurors at Bristol Crown Court that Reeves killed the couple when the two of them children we fast slept upstairs around 9pm.
The court heard that both Mr and Mrs Chapple were stabbed. six times to 35-year-old Reeves after the jump over in back garden fence and entered the couple’s house home.
Then he carried out minute attack on pair in their living room, stabbing both “several times” in living room, the court heard.
The jury was shown an excerpt from the film Chapples. back Door camera of Reeves enters through back door before Mrs. Chapple heard a scream in terror, with Reeves yells: “die you are fucking die”.
However, the clip was so upset that many of victims’ family members are sitting in in public the gallery decided to leave the court before it was played.
Mrs Chapple, 33, suffered six stab wounds to the upper chest and shoulder, resulting in fatal According to Crown Prosecutor Adam Fist, she suffered damage to a major blood vessel and her heart.
She didn’t even have chance stand up off the couch to protect himself, he added.
Mr Chapple, aged 36, was found close to the back door and had also Suffered six knife wounds, as well as three other minor injuries.
Nobody had defensive injuries indicating speed of in attackMr Fist said.
Reeves suffered problems in his marriage
The jury was told that Reeves, who was a paratrooper with The British Army recognized killing the couple and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
He claims to have suffered from “an anomaly of mental functioning” and the jurors were told that their job would be to decide whether it was true.
The jury was also said he would hear evidence from two psychiatrists about Reeves’ mental state.
After the Reeves murders climbed back over fence and called the police to tell them that he had stabbed his neighbors.
Just a few days before the attack, Mrs. Chapple was a victim of a “particularly nasty verbal attack” from Reeves, said Mr. Fist, who was captured on Ringing the victims’ door camera.
Reeves had also suffered problems in his own marriage, jurors were told.
Mr Fist said: “Whether it was a parking dispute, tensions in the defendant’s marriage, or a combination of these things that led the defendant to kill its neighbors are unclear.
When the police interrogated him in interviewed about his actions, the defendant decided to exercise his right to remain silent.”
The court is expected to last for eight days.
