A MOTHER-of-three collapsed and died in minutes of being stabbed with a large kitchen knife by her estranged partner, a murder trial jury heard today.

Pauline Butler, 61, suffered major injuries to her neck and chest when she was attacked by furniture company boss John Butler at the flat on April 14, Leeds Crown Court was told.

John Butler, the head of family-run Kettley’s Furniture Centre in Yeadon, denies murdering Mrs Butler, his partner of nearly 40 years.

Butler, 62, of Larkfield Road, Rawdon, says he suffered a loss of self-control when he killed the mother of their three sons in the living room of her home in Cherry Lea Court, Rawdon.

Today, Home Office Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said he believed Mrs Butler was killed with a 15cm-bladed kitchen knife found blood-stained at the scene.

He said up to ten movements of the weapon had caused injuries to her neck and chest varying from slight cuts and prodding marks to two very significant injuries that proved fatal.

Dr Shepherd said one stab wound had cut a major blood vessel in the neck and another had penetrated 18cm into Mrs Butler’s chest severing a main artery.

He said she would have suffered bleeding into the lungs, loss of breath and would have collapsed in about a minute.

She would then have lost consciousness and died.

Dr Shepherd said she had defensive injuries to both hands consistent with her grabbing hold of the knife.

BUSINESSMAN 'OPENED A BEER AND SMOKED A CIGAR AFTER STABBING HIS ESTRANGED PARTNER', MURDER TRIAL TOLD

“There is evidence of at least ten movements of the knife. It was a sustained attack,” he told the jury.

Earlier the Butlers’ youngest son Paul, 23, told how his parents had little in common in the weeks before the killing.

“They lived separate lives in the same house. We could all be watching the same TV programme but all in different rooms,” he said.

Paul Butler, who was living at the family home, said both his parents wanted him to go out and get a job. There were frequent family arguments and Mrs Butler would accuse her husband of sticking up for him.

Mr Butler said his mother told him she didn’t love their father any more.

He recalled one evening some time before the killing when he heard a row between his parents and came downstairs to investigate.

Mr Butler said his mother was armed with a knife in the kitchen and his father was up against a wall.

Mr Butler said he himself grappled with his mother and disarmed her.

“I took it with a pinch of salt. I thought it was just another stupid argument,” he said.

The trial continues.