This is the warped moment a former Army major who slashed his former wife’s throat over a bitter divorce settlement laughed and told police officers ‘you don’t get much action’ as he was arrested for attempted murder.
Jonathan Creak, 50, was made to pull over on a busy dual carriageway following the ‘chilling and vicious’ attack in a country lane on ex Rhiannon, 43, who was left with serious wounds to her windpipe, neck, back, breast and leg.
A trial heard how she recalled ‘flailing around’ and hearing the sound of bubbles in her throat as she tried to breathe through her own blood while he screamed: ‘You need to die.’
Creak was ordered out of his van on the dual carriageway near Bedford and told to lie on the road before he was handcuffed.
As they were put on his wrists, he could be heard laughing and protesting, saying ‘honestly, there’s no need for this’, before adding: ‘I guess you guys don’t get much action.’
Asked by an officer if the blood on his hands is his, he calmly replied: ‘Some of it.’
The footage was released as Creak was convicted of attempted murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent today.
He claimed in court he had no recollection of the attack but was found guilty of the counts as he sat in the dock with his head bowed.
Rhiannon Creak was left with serious wounds to her windpipe, neck, back, breast and leg in the brutal attack on a country lane
Judge Katharine Moore adjourned sentence until May 30 for a pre-sentence report but told him he ‘inevitably’ faced custody.
The report had to address the ‘live issue of dangerousness’, so ‘all forms of custodial sentence’ could be explored, she said.
Norwich Crown Court heard how the Afghanistan veteran used a Stanley knife to ‘repeatedly slash the flesh’ of his ex in Hardwick, Norfolk, on July 6 last year while she was on her way to muck out a friend’s horses.
He had driven more than 140 miles from his home in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, to confront her over her demands for a share of his Army pension after their ten-year marriage fell apart.
Cambridge-educated Ms Creak became aware that she was being followed by a white van on the A140 road heading south from Norwich and it continued to tail her as she turned off into a lane in Hardwick.
She became ‘increasingly anxious’ and pulled over at the side of the road and saw her ex-husband’s company logo on the side of the van as he drove past.
Creak drove back and parked his van ‘nose to nose’ with her car and they both got out of their vehicles, with Ms Creak being ‘unsurprisingly baffled’ about why he was following her, prosecutor Claire Matthews said.
After asking why he was there he reached into his pocket and produced a knife.
Creak glares at the camera as his mugshot is taken at a police station after he was arrested for ‘repeatedly’ knifing his former wife
Dramatic police bodycam footage showed Creak getting out of his van as an officer pointed a taser towards him
The suspect is ordered to lie on the ground with his arms outstretched and legs crossed as officers approach him with cuffs
‘She recalled hearing a metallic click as if something was being opened. He was telling her that he had nothing left to lose. Her instinct was to run but he told her that he could catch her,’ Ms Matthews said.
‘What followed was a chilling and vicious attack on Rhiannon Creak in that country lane.’
Ms Creak’s wounds were described as ‘grave’ and ‘serious’ and included am eight-inch cut to her neck and a five-inch wound beneath her breast, leading to her having a blood transfusion and emergency surgery to her windpipe and neck.
Creak called his fitness instructor partner Sophie Carter after fleeing the scene in the van and ‘told her that he had killed Rhiannon’, prompting her to call the police.
An officer arrived at her home and picked up the phone when Creak called again, hearing words to the effect: ‘I have done it. I have killed my ex-wife.’
Creak told the officer that he was in the Bedford area while heading back home and was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
In a prepared statement given to police, he complained how he had divorced his ex-wife in 2022 but ‘since then she has stonewalled proceedings by not agreeing to any settlement’.
He added she had ‘become even more bitter’ as a result of his new relationship, saying: ‘I believe she tried to destroy me after I gave her everything.’
Rhiannon Creak described how she was ‘flailing around’ as she was attacked by her former husband, who screamed: ‘You need to die.’
Attempted murdered Jonathan Creak was married to Rhiannon for ten years before they divorced in 2022. The financial settlement had not been agreed when he attacked her with a knife in July last year
Creak insisted he had not intended to kill or seriously injure her and had just been trying to make her answer him.
But Ms Matthews told jurors: ‘Sophie Carter describes some domestic issues in the period leading up to this which, the prosecution say, caused him to be very angry indeed.
‘The prosecution say that Mr Creak intended to kill Rhiannon that morning.’
In a recorded interview played in court, Ms Creak described how she met the defendant in 2006 when she was in the Officers’ Training Corps as a student at Cambridge University and he was an instructor for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
They moved in together and decided to marry when he was posted with the Army to Belize, with the wedding taking place in July 2008.
She returned from Belize in 2011 and wanted to train as a physiotherapist so she could work at different bases where he was posted but he was reluctant to support her financially and they started divorce proceedings in 2012.
They got back together after he was posted to Germany and then Afghanistan, despite a decree nisi having been granted, but split up again in 2018 while living in married quarters at the Apache helicopter base in Wattisham, Suffolk.
Creak with fitness instructor partner Sophie Carter, who contacted police when he rang to tell her he had ‘killed Rhiannon’
Miss Carter had a police officer with her when Creak called again and said words to the effect: ‘I have done it. I have killed my ex-wife.’
Describing the attack, she said: ‘He pulled something out of his right pocket and I got the impression it was a weapon of some sort with a blue or black handle and heard a metallic noise like a scraping. He said ‘I have got nothing left to lose’.’
As Creak attacked her, she said he was yelling: ‘You could have just accepted the settlement.’
Ms Creak, who had not had any contact with him other than through solicitors since 2019, added: ‘As he was slashing at my throat, he said ‘You need to die, you need to die’. I could not make a noise anymore. It was just blood and bubbling.’
Creak, who was medically discharged from the Army in October 2021 after 29 years’ service following a series of mental health assessments, admitted assault causing GBH and possessing a bladed article before the trial.
Detective Inspector Duncan Woodhams, of Norfolk Police, said after the hearing: ‘This was a horrific offence for which he has rightly been found guilty. Our thoughts remain with the victim and her family.’
