Cocaine addict Paul Knight strangled his wife Izzy in a ‘sustained and violent attack’
Paul Knight was in the grip of an ‘entrenched drug habit’ when he callously murdered his wife after their relationship broke down, a court has heard.
The cocaine addict had been taking the class-A drug and watching pornography for hours before, and after, he killed his wife Isobella, known as Izzy.
Knight, 36, spent the entirety of today’s (Thursday, January 29) sentencing hearing looking at his feet as the court heard how he strangled his wife to death with the pair’s two children in the house. He held a pillow over her face to ensure that nobody heard her screams.
He was given a life term and will have to serve 17 years and one month in prison before he is eligible for parole.
Knight has never revealed exactly why he killed her, claiming the night is a ‘blur’.
The court heard the pair had been having marital problems and were heavily in debt, partly thanks to Knight’s ten-year cocaine addiction.
He took the drug ‘inside and outside’ the family home.
Izzy had asked Knight for a divorce twice in the previous 18 months, and on the night of her death had been looking at Right Move to find somewhere new for her and the girls to live.
Neighbours had heard shouting in the weeks before the murder, but on the evening of June 12 last year, Izzy was spotted on a neighbour’s CCTV camera taking the family dogs for a walk.
It’s thought Izzy was already asleep when Knight strangled her ‘in a sustained and violent attack.’
A pathologist said that Knight must have administered ‘significant’ force to her neck both before and after she fell unconscious. Other injuries indicated there had been a struggle.
Remnants of cocaine were found on Izzy’s neck during forensic examination.
Knight, 36, spent most of the night browsing for extreme pornography and local escorts on both his and Izzy’s phone. He also searched the internet asking whether children could be given Valium.
He then sent a message to his mum at 6.23am, asking her to pick up the pair’s children as he was not feeling well.
The girls, aged five and two, walked downstairs past their mum’s room, where she lay dead in bed, to their grandmother.
While they were out, sales manager Knight made superficial attempts on his own life and took cocaine, diazepam and Valium. He searched the internet for suicide methods and for local bridges. He drove his blue Skoda around Kettering for an hour and a half before crashing in to another car at McDonald’s.
A police officer approached him and found him ‘incoherent and unresponsive’, so called for help.
An officer visited Knight’s home in Burton Latimer and found bloodied knives and blades as well as blood on the walls and smashed crockery. Izzy was lying in bed, under the covers, and had been dead for some time. He had left a suicide note confessing to killing Izzy, but begged for police not to reveal how she had died.
Prosecuting, Pavlos Panayi KC said that Knight had a ‘serious cocaine addiction’.
"The couple were in significant financial difficulties after buying Donnington Road in 2021,” he said.
"It placed a heavy burden on both of them, working and struggling to make ends meet.”
In the months before the murder, a neighbour had heard several arguments between the pair.
Knight had taken out a £16,000 loan to pay off some of his debts, although he had lied about the amount.
On February 3, 2025, Izzy, 32, asked Knight for a divorce.
By June, the couple were sleeping in separate rooms and looking to sell their home, the court heard.
But messages between the pair were normal, with them exchanging Instagram images and heart emojis.
Five days before Izzy was killed, a neighbour hear her shouting ‘I’ve had enough of this.’
On Monday, June 9, Paul Knight received a message from his cocaine dealer advertising ‘pearly rocket fuel’, and he spent £360 on seven grammes of the class-A drug the following morning, June 10. It’s thought he had taken the full amount before the Friday morning when he was arrested.
On June 10 Izzy had messaged pals in WhatsApp group over her money worries, saying that they had to replace a broken dishwasher.
"I’m just so fed up and p***sed off,” she said. “We never have any money because we keep having to replace s**t.”
And on the night of the incident, neighbours heard doors slamming for up to two hours
Mr Panayi said: “On the night of the murder, at least from the outside, all appeared to be well. An ordinary and conventional evening in the life of a young family.”
Knight was seen on CCTV watering his garden and Izzy took the dogs for a walk.
But the pair argued over his cocaine use. Knight later claimed to his barrister that Izzy had told him that he would not be able to see the children.
Knight has never revealed what happened next, but it is thought he killed her between 11.52pm on June 12, and 2.24am on June 13.
He continued to watch pornography for the remainder of the night, through the early hours and failed to turn up for work the next morning.
He began writing suicide notes on his phone, one of which said his ashes should be ‘scattered in the bin where I belong.”
He also criticised the prevalence of cocaine promoters on Instagram.
During the early afternoon of June 13 he went into the shed to retrieve secateurs which he then used during a superficial suicide attempt.
After his arrest he was interviewed by police six times, and answered no comment to every question.
In a victim personal statement, Izzy’s loving father Tim Davies told the packed courtroom that he hadn’t known about the pressure she was under.
He said that having to identify his daughter was ‘the most difficult day of my life.’
“I had seen Izzy into the world in May 1993, and on a bright day in June I went from the heat of the day into a refrigerated, pastel coloured room to say goodbye to her. I barely recognised her,” he said.
He said that has the facts came to light, he ‘hated’ Paul Knight.
"Why had he taken our daughter?” he said.
"He snuffed her out.”
Izzy’s Mum Helena Sharrott said that she had now taken on the responsibility of bringing up Izzy’s children.
She said Izzy was ‘whacky, funny and had a wicked sense of humour.’
"We have just spent our first Christmas without her,” she said.
"It was horrible. We’ll never have another Christmas with her.
"I worry for the girls who don’t have their mummy to read them a story, tuck them in. They have both been deprived of their mummy, their rock, and to them, the best mummy in the world.”
Izzy’s sister Georgina Davies said that her and her partner had been close to Izzy and Knight.
"Paul’s taken my sister away from me,” she said.
"My big sister and purpose-built best friend.”
She said the pair had shared a bedroom until they were 17.
"I never got to say goodbye to my sister,” she said, “I never got to hug her one last time.”
“Paul Knight was not the man I believed him to be.
"I struggled with the reality of someone who should have loved her, protected her and cherished her, but instead he has taken her life.
"I can’t believe he has done this to me. I can’t believe he has done this to his children.”
Mitigating for Knight, John Lloyd-Jones KC said: “The girls did not know what happened and they did not know on that morning that their mother had died.
“This defendant strove to make sure that did not happen.
“They were not given Valium and were not drugged in any way.
"Many of the events remain a blur for this defendant.”
He said that his client had found God in prison said that cocaine had made him ‘paranoid and fixated’ with things.
"He was acting within the moment,” he said.
"It was an over-reaction to what had been said earlier in the evening.
"He deeply, deeply regrets what he did.”
Mr Lloyd-Jones read a letter from Knight which said he had allowed himself to ‘abuse cocaine for years.’
Sentencing Knight to 17 years and one month in prison, minus time he has already served, Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking KC said: “Overnight on the 12th and 13th of June 2025, whilst under the influence of cocaine, you lost your temper and in a fit of rage killed Isobella by strangling her in the bedroom she occupied, whilst the children of the family were asleep in another bedroom.
"It is a reasonable inference to draw from the suicide note and the injuries that you also held a pillow over her face to avoid Isobella being heard as you killed her. Whatever the precise nature of the disagreement was between you that day or evening, nothing justified or excused your violent attack.”