Dentist Stabbed His Rival After He Returned Home To Find He Had Taken Cocaine & Drinking With His Wife

A dentist knifed his love rival four times after returning home to find the man had been drinking and taking cocaine with his wife, a court was told yesterday.

Phillip Gale, 50, stabbed Andrew Smith in the chest and back then told police, 'Arrest me, I know what I've done', the jury heard.

It was said Gale later told officers he attacked Mr Smith for giving his wife Jayne Masters cocaine, and asked them: 'Is that b****** still alive? The husband was described as 'proud and boastful about what he had done'.

Smith was taken to hospital but survived. The dentist, who claims he acted in self-defence, went on trial yesterday accused of attempted murder.

Gale and his wife of 13 years had each had extra-marital affairs and 'lived separate lives'. But in the weeks before the attack they had agreed they would not bring lovers back to the house, Preston Crown Court was told.

During a 'clearing the air conversation', Miss Masters, 48, had admitted an ongoing relationship to her husband, the jury heard – not with Mr Smith, but with another lover.

Describing the wife's 'complicated' relationship with Mr Smith, Mark Ryan, prosecuting, said: 'Miss Masters says or suggests the relationship was not sexual, describing them being like two girlfriends, who stayed up talking, drinking and sometimes taking cocaine into the early hours.

However, as to whether the relationship had been sexual at all, Mr Smith claimed there had been 'a dabble once or twice', the court was told.

Mr Ryan added: 'Phillip Gale strongly objected to this relationship, possibly because of Mr Smith's habit of taking cocaine and giving cocaine to Miss Masters.

Giving evidence yesterday Miss Masters said she and Gale had continued to live together 'as husband and wife' at their five-bedroom detached house.

'Just because we didn't share a bedroom doesn't mean we didn't have a marriage,' she said, adding that they had decided 'we'll just be honest to each other so it doesn't cause any arguments'.

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

'My husband didn't like his lifestyle,' Miss Masters said. 'He didn't like his reputation and that is why he didn't want him in our home … My husband is a professional person.

We had a beautiful home. I blame myself.'

A few days before the attack last October, Gale had withheld his wife's housekeeping money after discovering she had invited Mr Smith into their home in Foulridge, near Colne, Lancashire, the court heard.