Farmer’s wife who beat husband with a lump hammer is in line for £1.8million divorce deal
A FARMER’S wife is in line for a £1.8 million divorce settlement despite facing jail for attacking her husband with a lump hammer, a court heard yesterday.
Pamela Teasdale, 69, has been embroiled in an expensive and longrunning legal battle in the civil courts over ownership of family farm buildings and the terms of her divorce from husband Daniel, 74.
But the dispute has ended up in the criminal courts after Teasdale attacked her husband with a lump hammer as he sat in his chair.
The mother-of-two and grandmother was originally charged with attempted murder for the attack at the family’s farm in Todwick, near Rotherham, last August. Earlier this year the Crown accepted her guilty plea to a charge of ‘attempted wounding with intent’ and she was due to be sentenced for the ‘serious attack’ at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday.
However, the case was adjourned after it was revealed Teasdale admitted a stalking offence against her husband while on bail last month. She is alleged to have taken video footage of him working with farm machinery after being informed he was not fit to work.
Teasdale pleaded guilty to stalking when the case came before Sheffield magistrates. She has been locked up since her stalking arrest and was yesterday remanded in custody by
‘Vast sums have been spent’
the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson, KC.
Meanwhile, with more legal hearings due before the civil courts, the family’s wealth is ending up in the pockets of lawyers.
Judge Richardson said ‘vast sums of money have been spent’ in the legal wrangling, and the family’s wealth has been ‘almost if not completely extinguished’.
Teasdale sat grim-faced in the dock, watched by her two daughters who held hands in the public gallery.
The court heard a legal problem concerned with the stalking offence meant Teasdale could not be sentenced for the hammer attack until a future date. The offence carries a maximum life sentence.
Teasdale had been living at Burne Farm, which has been in her husband’s family for three generations, while the divorce agreement was sorted out. But matters took a sinister turn when she ‘attacked’ Mr Teasdale last August.
Laura Marshall, prosecuting, said: ‘Mr Teasdale was sat in his chair when he was struck numerous times with a lump hammer.’
Details of any injuries suffered by the farmer have not been revealed. At the time of the attack, it is understood the terms of Teasdale’s divorce from her husband of 44 years had been ruled on by a judge.
Ms Marshall said £800,000 of a £1.8million divorce settlement had been paid to Teasdale. There is an ongoing legal challenge over the remaining £1 million.
The court heard that a family court judge has refused two applications to stop the £1million payment and ordered that it should be paid.
Commenting on the ongoing legal battle in the civil courts, Judge Richardson said it was ‘incredibly complex’ and there was ‘a great deal of rancour on all sides’.