The son of a woman on trial for the murder of her husband has told a jury the dead man had subjected his mother to years of physical and psychological abuse.

Thomas Rawle, the son of Christine Rawle, said her husband, Ian, hit her with a riding crop and shovel and once pushed her through a closed bay window.

The witness said Ian Rawle would try to control his wife by hiding car and house keys, bank cards and phones, or blocking her car in so she could not escape.

Christine Rawle, 70, is on trial at Exeter crown court for allegedly murdering her husband of 27 years at their smallholding in north Devon. She told police after his death aged 72 that he had been violent, sexually abusive and financially controlling.

Giving evidence at the start of the defence case, Thomas Rawle, 38, who is not Ian’s son by birth but called him “Dad”, said he was a bossy man who liked to be in control.

He said the atmosphere at home was “often turbulent” and Ian Rawle was “very aggressive” and would “scream, shout, salivate, spit and be red in the face”. He said he still did not really understand what the rows were about but, as a boy and young man they had left him scared.

Thomas said he remembered an argument developing when he was a child over plans to renovate a bay window. He said: “He punched my mum and grabbed her and forced her out through the window.” Thomas recalled that she was cut and bleeding.

On another occasion Ian hit her with a riding crop, he said. “He struck her across the face and split her face open,” Thomas said.

Ian would hide keys or block his wife’s car in so she was not able to “escape”, said Thomas. Asked why he had done this, Thomas said: “It was an element of control.”

In 1996, Thomas said, Ian became angry when he could not grasp some maths homework. He said Ian hit him around the head with a metal ruler and then hurled an ashtray at his leg, which was hot because it was on a mantelpiece over an open fire and left a severe burn.

Thomas said his mother came into the room to protect him but Ian blocked her way and punched her in the side of her face. The court was told Christine then stabbed her husband in the arm and chest. Thomas said he was forced to go to hospital with Ian.

He told the court his mother had a bad leg but Ian would kick it while wearing steel toe cap boots “like a football”. Thomas said Ian once hit Christine on the back during a row with a large “Devon shovel”.

He said Ian “ransacked” the kitchen when a meal was not what he wanted and often threw meals he did not approve of.

Thomas said his mother called her husband “dick” and “dickhead”, while he called her “fatty, fatso and fat pig” and said she needed to diet. He added: “My dad was the aggressor quite frequently.”

The witness denied a claim by his ex-partner that she had seen his mother holding a knife to Ian’s throat in the kitchen. He also denied claims she wiped her backside on his ties, saying “absolutely not”.

Sean Brunton KC, prosecuting, suggested to Thomas that he was showing “commendable loyalty” to his mother but was “rewriting history” about her relationship. “You’re making Ian Rawle look as bad as you can,” the prosecutor said.

Thomas denied this but conceded his mother had a “nasty temper” and was “stubborn”. Asked if his mother had loved Ian Rawle, he replied: “Undoubtedly”.

Christine Rawle denies murder and the trial continues.