THE wife of a dentist accused of stabbing a love rival in the back has told a court her husband is not a violent man.

Jayne Masters, 48, said although their marriage had drifted apart and she no longer shared a bedroom together, she and Phillip Gale, 50, still lived as husband and wife.

Gale, of Tower View, Foulridge, is accused of attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent after Andrew Smith, 52, suffered four stab wounds to his back and torso at the family home last October.

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Miss Masters said: “My husband is a professional person. We had a beautiful home. I blame myself.”

Preston Crown Court heard Gale returned from a trip to Blackpool at around 9pm on October 16 to discover Smith in the kitchen with his wife.

They had been drinking and taking cocaine together, despite Gale saying he did not want Smith in the house.

Miss Masters said: “My husband didn’t like his lifestyle. He didn’t like his reputation and that is why he didn’t want him in our home.”

The court heard Gale had found his wife and Smith asleep together on the sofas or in her bedroom on a number of occasions when the pair had been up drinking into the early hours.

On another occasion he had caught the pair in the downstairs toilet together.

Miss Masters said her husband had stopped going to The New Inn, where Smith drank, and chose to drink in Foulsworth Social Club.

When Gale returned home on October 16 to discover his wife with Smith, the prosecution say he ‘flipped’ and plunged the knife into him.

Smith said: “He went past me to the kitchen drawer and he picked up the knife and asked me to get out of his house.”

He said he was leaving when Gale stabbed him in the back with the carving knife.

But Mark Stewart, defending, said Smith was the antagonist and Gale had knifed him in self defence after a scuffle spilled into the hallway.

Gale denies the allegations.

The trial continues.