“Slave” Husband Dismembered His Wife But Got Acquitted Of Murder

Power imbalances in a marriage are not a very rare occurrence, but what happened between an interracial Korean-English couple because of it left the world in shock.

In 2004, after the British teacher Paul Dalton went incognito for a while, his worried parents decided to visit his home. Finding the place deserted, the couple searched through the house, and after finding nothing, Mr. Dalton opened up the fridge to make tea but ended up discovering the body of his daughter-in-law, Tae Hui Dalton, who was dismembered.

As the investigation proceeded, it was discovered that Paul Dalton had fled to Japan, strengthening suspicions that he was the one behind this heinous murder. When the authorities finally got their hands on Paul, he was sent to trial, during which he revealed how his wife had treated him like a “slave” for over 11 years.

Tae Hui and Dalton met first in 1994 and got married in 1997. By 2004, they had a six-year-old daughter and ran a successful language school together. But standing in court, Paul testified that he was a “slave” in this marriage and the professional partnership, as Tae Hui allegedly kept all the money to herself. “She always got what she wanted. I was scared of her. Everyone was scared of her,” he said.

As time went by, she just dominated every aspect of my life. It was total domination. I didn’t get a wage. I didn’t get any money at all.

— Paul Dalton

On the fated day, Paul told the jury that he and Tae Hui had a fight when she taunted him with an affair. “She was saying the most hurtful things. She was just saying she married me for the visa,” he elaborated. According to Paul’s testimony, his wife then lunged at him, and in an apparent blind panic, he hit her face, breaking her jaw. Paul then left her on the floor and went upstairs for a while, assuming that she was dead. “She was lying dead. She was not breathing. I looked into her face, and she was gone,” he said.

Tae Hui, however, was not dead, as the prosecution pointed out. She could have survived had her husband not left her behind, after which she choked on her own blood and passed away. Paul told the jury that later, he bought a Black & Decker electric saw, a freezer, and a handsaw to deal with his wife’s dead body.

I moved her to the front room. I cut her up in the front room. I wouldn’t say I took a great deal of care. It seems totally insane, looking back on it. I was really trying desperately to hide what had happened … My brain was on fire.

— Paul Dalton

Dalton then dismembered Tae Hui’s body in nine parts and stored them in the freezer. The prosecution claimed that he had initially planned to dump the body parts in the sea or the Thames River but lost his nerve and fled to Japan instead. In the court, Dalton admitted to killing his wife and preventing the burial of her body but denied murdering her.

Surprisingly, the ruling was made in his favor, at least to some degree. Dalton got two years of prison for manslaughter and three years for preventing the burial. Since the jury could not find beyond reasonable belief that there was intent to murder, Dalton was acquitted of that charge.