A Felixstowe woman who was found with a knife in her back after she was allegedly murdered by her husband suffered 14 stab wounds, a court has heard.

Giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday, pathologist Dr Nat Cary, who carried out a post-mortem examination on 67-year-old Jean Ryan, said although some of the stab wounds caused serious injury to her lungs the fatal blow was a wound to her back which cut a major artery out of her heart.

Dr Cary said some of the stab wounds caused damage to Mrs Ryan’s ribs and cartilage and these would have required “severe” force.

He said that one wound above the right breast went though the diaphragm and into the liver and was 15cm deep and another had severed a jugular vein.

He said that cuts on Mrs Ryan’s hands and arms could have been caused as she tried to defend herself.

Dr Cary said in addition to carrying out a post-mortem examination of Mrs Ryan, he had examined photographs of cuts to her husband Shaun Ryan’s hands.

He said Ryan had multiple wounds to his fingers and the palms of both hands and in his opinion these could have been caused by him fending off a knife attack or during a struggle to get control of a knife.

Ryan, 61, has denied murdering his wife on April 13 last year.

The court has heard police went to the couple’s bungalow in Gosford Way, Felixstowe, after Mrs Ryan made a 999 call during which she could be heard shouting and screaming.

Officers found her lifeless body on the bedroom floor with a knife sticking out of her back while her husband was in the hallway bleeding from cuts to his hands.

The court heard in addition to the fatal stab wound to her back, Mrs Ryan suffered multiple stab wounds to her head, chest, abdomen, arms and legs and other injuries which were probably caused by punching or kicking.

The court has heard that the defence do not dispute that Ryan caused his wife’s death and the issue was his mental state at the time.

The trial continues.