A woman in England who stabbed her estranged husband after learning he had euthanized their beloved pet dogs has been acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of a lesser violent offense.
Claire Bridger, 64, of Taverham near Norwich, was found not guilty of attempted murder but convicted of wounding with intent following a jury verdict delivered on Jan. 13, according to the Eastern Daily Press.
The incident unfolded on July 17, 2025, when Bridger arrived at the home of her estranged husband, Keith Bridger, and immediately sensed something was wrong. As she pulled into the driveway, she noticed an eerie silence.
Their dogs weren’t barking.
According to testimony reported by The Telegraph, Bridger asked Keith where the dogs were. He told her he had them put down. Moments later, she stabbed him in the chest and abdomen with a knife she had inside her car.
Jurors later heard part of the emergency 999 call in which Bridger could be heard screaming, “You killed my dogs!”
Bridger, a nurse and mother of two, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and wounding with intent. While the jury rejected the attempted murder charge, they found her guilty of intentionally wounding her husband.
During the trial, prosecutors laid out the events that led to the stabbing. The couple, married for nearly 40 years, had separated in April 2025 and were attending mediation sessions at the time of the attack.
Bridger testified that she had been the primary caregiver for the couple’s two rescue dogs but left them with Keith when she traveled to London to visit her sister and niece. What was meant to be a short visit stretched into several weeks as she struggled with the emotional fallout of the separation.
While she was away, Keith and their daughters cared for the dogs, which were described in court as having significant behavioral issues. At one point, one of her daughters warned her that the dogs were becoming too difficult to manage and might be euthanized.
“I thought it was nonsense,” Bridger told the jury, according to the Eastern Daily Press. “I thought they would never put the dogs down, no matter what.”
When she returned to Norwich, Bridger drove to Keith’s home to drop off belongings for their daughters. Before leaving, she admitted to drinking a double gin and tonic.
Keith was standing in the driveway when she arrived. As she prepared to leave, she realized again that she couldn’t hear the dogs. She shouted to ask where they were, honked her horn, and asked again.
On the third attempt, she said Keith turned toward her and told her bluntly that the dogs were dead and had been euthanized.
“It was like an explosion in my head,” Bridger testified. “I could see my feet getting out of the car and that was it.”
She told the court she blacked out, grabbed a bent knife from a trash bag inside her vehicle, and stabbed him while “seeing red.” When asked by her own defense attorney whether she intended to cause serious harm, Bridger answered yes.
Her defense argued that a psychiatric expert found a combination of alcohol consumption and extreme emotional distress could have caused temporary amnesia during the attack.
Bridger is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20.
I would have stabbed him as well!!
Good for her!!!!!
an eye for eye….put him down