‘Loving’ spouse murdered husband of 27 years after shedding mood and mentioned he ‘fell on knife’

Daryl Berman, 72, has been jailed for murdering her husband David Berman, 84, after claiming he tripped and fell on a knife in their kitchen in Prestwich, Manchester

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A woman who murdered her husband and then claimed he “fell on a knife” has been jailed for life. Daryl Berman, 72, insisted that David Berman, 84, stumbled in their kitchen and fell onto a ‘little paring knife’ she had been using for her lunch.

Mr Berman suffered a fatal chest wound during the incident at their home on Butterstile Lane, Prestwich in March last year. The prosecution argued that Berman deliberately stabbed her husband “for a reason known only to her.”

But she insisted throughout two trials that her husband’s wounds, and resulting death, were “accidental.” Jurors in an initial trial were unable to reach verdicts.

But today (July 3), following a week-long retrial at Minshull Street Crown Court, Berman was jailed for life for murder with a minimum term of 12 years, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The court had previously heard that Berman rang 999 at 1.55pm on March 13, 2025, to report that her husband had been hurt. He was pronounced dead at their property at 2.39pm.

Prosecutor Michael Brady KC said it was only subsequently that a senior pathologist was called in as another medic was ‘troubled’ by the wound.

Home Office pathologist Dr Philip Lumb stated that the stab injury had ‘typical features of a homicide’. He maintained that while not impossible, an accidental tumble was ‘very unlikely to have caused the fatal wound’.

Mr Berman was also found to have a ‘defensive’ injury to his finger. The pair’s 27-year marriage had been ‘loving and mutually supportive’ and there had been no record of domestic violence or police involvement.

Berman was described as a ‘very supportive and loving wife’.

Prosecutors disclosed that Mr Berman’s family had noticed peculiar aspects of the defendant’s behaviour in the days following his demise. “Although there is no set way to respond to and deal with grief in the days following David’s death, members of his family noticed how matter of fact and emotionless the defendant was,” prosecutor Michael Brady KC stated.

Mr Brady told jurors that police initially accepted Berman’s account that her husband’s injury had been an accident.

The court heard that Mr Berman had been diagnosed with dementia, relied on a walking stick and had been experiencing ‘shortness of breath’ in the 10 days prior. “However, he had been in the best health his family had seen for some time,” Mr Brady continued.

Earlier on March 13, Mr Berman had spent time at a play centre with his daughter and great granddaughter, the court was told. Jurors were informed that Mrs Berman called 999 that afternoon and performed CPR under the operator’s guidance.

When asked about what had transpired, she replied: “I don’t know. I was in the other room. He’s carried a tray in. And all I can see is the tray. I think there was a knife. I don’t know whether the little knife that was there has gone into him and stabbed him. I really don’t know what’s happened.”

The first paramedic to arrive at the scene found Mr Berman sprawled on his back across the kitchen floor, it was stated. After a police officer turned up and spoke with Mrs Berman, she reportedly enquired: “You don’t think I’ve murdered him, do you?”.

Prosecutors disclosed the officer also had a conversation with Mr Berman’s son, who portrayed his father as ‘clumsy’ and someone who was ‘always falling’. Mr Berman’s death wasn’t initially treated as suspicious, but alarm bells rang five days later when the pathologist carried out a post-mortem examination, the court was told.

Mrs Berman was arrested on suspicion of murder that very evening, jurors heard. During police questioning, she told officers that she and her husband had both eaten lunch in the lounge and that Mr Berman had offered to take her tray to the kitchen.

She told police: “And he obviously walked into the kitchen, and I heard what sounded like a stumble or a fall. And straight away I said ‘oh my God, David, what’s wrong?’. He said ‘it’s okay I’ve slipped’.

“And I sort of almost immediately heard another sort of bang, and a sort of groan. So I got up. I screamed and I ran into the kitchen.

“And I found him face down. He was making the most peculiar sound, I sort of looked down, moved his head a bit. And I thought ‘what on earth is all this gravy? We don’t have gravy’. And it was the amount of blood, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

“I got the shock of my life because I didn’t know where it was coming from. I just… I just couldn’t understand. And I was screaming, I said ‘David, David’… I said ‘you can’t go like this’.”

While giving her testimony in defence, she frequently broke down in tears.

When questioned about how she felt upon learning of his death, she wept: “I was scrambling, I didn’t know what I was doing. I went into the kitchen on quite a few occasions because I just wanted to be with David. I took the sheet off his face and lay down next to him and cradled his head and told him I loved him.

“I didn’t want to leave him, I wanted to lie next to him. It was the last thing I could do.

“The suggestion is that you murdered your husband of 27 years, did you? ,” Mr Hayton asked. “Why would I do that to the man I love? No,” Mrs Berman responded.

“How do you explain how he came to die? ,” the barrister queried. “I have absolutely no idea, I wasn’t in the room.”

During cross-examination by Mr Brady, he asked: “Are you lying to this jury?”.

“No, I’m not… everything I have said is the truth,” she answered. “Because you stabbed him and you are responsible for his death?” the prosecutor probed.

“No I would never do that to the man I loved. It was the worst day of my life,” Mrs Berman retorted.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Berman’s daughter, Debbie Davies said: “Since finding out my father died due to Daryl is an ongoing nightmare.

“I have found it hard to sleep, and keep going over that date and scenarios in my mind, I feel like living in my nightmare.

“I have been feeling very up and down and quite often burst out crying.

“I feel like I can’t even mourn my father. He was just getting to know his great-grandchildren. They keep asking if Grandpa Dave is coming to soft play.

“There is a massive void in my life. I know my father was 84 but he still had some good years ahead of him.”

Sentencing Berman, Judge Tina Landale told her: “On all accounts you were nurturing and caring towards him. However, life was changing for you, and not for the better.

“What happened next is unclear. Not knowing what happened had caused ongoing distress to his children.

“It appears he took your lunch tray and something happened between you. David Berman fell to the floor and you stabbed him in the chest. He tried to defend himself and in doing so sustained a separate wound to his finger.

“You have never given a truthful account of what happened. I am satisfied you lost your temper which caused you to attack David. Whatever the trigger was, is unknown.”