A pub landlord has been cleared of attempting to murder his wife after he told a jury he had accidentally stabbed her in the back as he tripped over a dog toy.

Stephen Bangs, who ran The Pheasant in Kennington, Ashford, was accused of deliberately knifing Yadasuphak Bangs as she was washing up at the sink in August last year.

Canterbury Crown Court was told that having allegedly lunged at his wife of eight years with the kitchen knife, the 62-year-old told her "I'm going to kill you" and attempted to stab her more than once.

A shocked and scared Mrs Bangs, who is 21 years younger than her husband, managed to grab the blade and push him away before she escaped out of a window just before 1pm on August 18.

She was taken to hospital suffering from a deep wound to the right side of her back which measured 2.5cm long.

Mr Bangs, who described himself as "devoted" to his wife, fled the pub and drove himself to Ashford police station where he was arrested.

But at the start of his trial, jurors were told that the incident was an "entirely unfortunate accident" caused when Mr Bangs stumbled over a large, semi-inflated, dog toy tennis ball as he turned from scraping a chopping board into a bin.

The couple had a "loving and very happy" relationship, they were told, and Mr Bangs never intended "to kill, cause serious harm or hurt his wife at all", said his barrister Daniel Cohen.

The prosecution alleged however that the explanation given by the ex-Royal Marine was "simply untrue" and that the stabbing was "clearly deliberate".

Bangs denied attempted murder as well as the alternative, less serious offences of wounding with intent and wounding.

He was unanimously found not guilty today of all charges after jury deliberations lasting just one hour.

Mr Bangs clasped his hands together in thanks to jurors before being discharged from the dock.

He had previously gone on trial on the same charges in January but the jury on that occasion failed to reach verdicts and so the retrial was required.

The court heard the couple met online in April 2013 and married in Thailand the following year.

At the time of the alleged murder bid, they had been living for just over five years in a three-bedroom flat above the pub where Bangs was general manager.

Mrs Bangs, who is known as Joy, described her husband to police as "a gentleman who took care of me". She said they were always "laughing and playing" and did not fight or have money problems.

The court heard the 41-year-old had just returned from walking their Beagle dog Tigger when it was alleged she was attacked by her husband. She said their day until then had been "normal".

Although Mrs Bangs' wound was described as deep by doctors, the blade had not penetrated the chest cavity or damaged any internal organs.

Mr Bangs described the moment the knife struck her back as "a little jab" or "tap".

He even demonstrated his actions to the jury with the help of a court file in his left hand representing the chopping board, a ruler in his right standing in for the knife, and a court usher playing Mrs Bangs.

The court also heard how he had previously stabbed people during combat in the Falklands War and told police after his arrest that it "felt the same" when he cut his wife.

But he refuted the prosecution case that he had deliberately knifed her in a murder bid.

"I was devoted to this girl. I loved her. We had everything. I had no reason to hurt her. We had a great life, holiday after holiday,” he told the court during cross-examination by prosecutor Laurence Imrie.

“There was no reason for this, there was no motivation for this, nothing.

"If I was going to murder her, as you are accusing me of, It wouldn't have been a little tap to her lower back. It would have been a multiple amount of stab wounds.

"When you are in training with the Marines, they talk about if you are going to commit to something, in hand-to-hand combat, you commit.

"There are far worse places you can injure someone and it wouldn't be with that knife either.

"I have never hurt Mrs Bangs, I never wanted to hurt Mrs Bangs and I never would hurt Mrs Bangs. I never wanted to kill Mrs Bangs."

He also maintained his wife had misheard him in her panic and hysteria and that he had actually told her "I'm not trying to kill you. I'd kill myself before I'd kill you."

Recalling the moment she was stabbed in the back by her husband, Mrs Bangs told police in a video recorded interview played to the jury that when she felt a blow to her back she thought her husband was "playing" with her, only to turn and see the knife in his hand.

"I just felt like something has hit my back so hard. I wanted to turn back (and say) 'What you doing?' I saw (the) knife in his hand and then I was just shocked," she said.

"I don't know what happened, because we are not fighting or had a problem. We smile, we laugh, in the morning.

"I saw the knife in his hand and I say 'What you doing?' and he say 'I want to kill you'. I say 'No, no. no'. I'm just shocked. My brain was just shocked.

"I started to get the knife from him....I pushed him out. I got the knife from him. He just called me (by) my name, like 'Joy' Joy'.

"I was just calling the people outside to help me because the window was open and he just ran off...I was just screaming 'Help, help'.

"People outside started to hear me and started to come and try to help me. I said 'Help, help. I want to get out the window."

Mrs Bangs described herself as being "scared and panicked".

"He just say 'I want to kill you'. That's what I heard from him. I was just shocked and I didn't know I had got stabbed in my back because I was not feeling anything. I wasn't feeling hurt," she told officers.

"I can't remember how I got the knife but I just tried to get it from him. I just tried to push him out from the kitchen.

"I was just very scared. This has never happened to me in my life with Steve together, almost 10 years. I just don't know what happened."