Wife found guilty of murdering Wakefield husband after stabbing him through the heart

Lisa Ellwood maintains she remembers nothing of the bloody attack on Ryan Ellwood in the kitchen of their home in Wakefield after a night of heavy drinking. She plunged a kitchen knife into his chest damaging his rib, lung and piercing his aorta.

Lisa was found unanimously guilty of murder by a jury today following a two-week trial at Leeds Crown Court. She was remanded back into custody and will be sentenced tomorrow. She faces a mandatory life sentence, with a minimum term to be decided during tomorrow's hearing.

The trial heard heard that the pair endured a volatile relationship that was marred by violence from both sides.

The couple had met in the early 2000s and were both fans of Everton FC. They became involved in a long-term relationship in 2018 with Lisa living in Ireland. She moved to Wakefield in December 2019 and they married a short time later. They had been drinking in the Blind Pig in Wakefield city centre on August 29 last year, but got into an argument that Lisa Ellwood said she could not recall. She later was seen on CCTV falling over near to her home as she arrived home alone after Ryan.

When she got home to Greenwood Court, Agbrigg, the argument resumed in the kitchen and she then picked up a kitchen knife and attacked him, inflicting a single fatal stab wound to his chest.

She rang 999 and and told the operator that she simply came home and found him injured. Paramedics were unable to save Ryan and he was pronounced dead at 11.45pm that night.

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During the trial it was first heard that Ryan was often assaulted by Lisa during drunken rows leaving him as a "shell of a man". But in response, she claimed he would be subject to his assaults, attacking her while she slept.