Husband who ‘drove his spouse to suicide’ stopped sporting his wedding ceremony ring solely two weeks after her demise and ‘seen her as a trophy’, courtroom advised
A husband accused of killing his wife by driving her to suicide viewed her only as a ‘trophy’ and stopped wearing his wedding ring two weeks after she hanged herself, her mother told a court today.
Christopher Trybus was ‘besotted’ with wife Tarryn Baird but after they became husband and wife he only regarded her as ‘his trophy’, manslaughter jurors were told.
Ms Baird’s emotional mother, Michelle Baird, today said she thinks her daughter had been trying to ‘warn’ her about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of Trybus.
Trybus, 43, is accused of subjecting Ms Baird to ‘extensive’ acts of manipulative behaviour and sexual violence – so serious he is charged with her manslaughter.
Ms Baird hanged herself aged 34 at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.
Trybus is charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of rape in relation to Ms Baird.
At Winchester Crown Court, Hants, prosecutors say that Trybus unlawfully killed Ms Baird on November 28 2017.
It has already been heard that Trybus threatened to ‘snap her neck’ and then ‘dissolve her body in acid so no-one would find her’.
Tarryn Baird’s mother, Michelle (pictured), said her daughter’s husband took his ring off two weeks after he allegedly drove her to suicide
Christopher Trybus (pictured left with his current wife Bea Trybus), 43, is accused of subjecting Ms Baird to ‘extensive’ acts of manipulative behaviour and sexual violence – so serious he is charged with her manslaughter
Ms Baird hanged herself aged 34 at their home in Swindon, Wilts, where her mother Michelle lived with them
Today, Michelle told the jury that it was ‘horrendous’ to hear, and rejected defence lawyer Katy Thorne’s suggestion that the family were talking about Breaking Bad at the time.
Michelle said: ‘I know my daughter better than anyone else. She was trying to warn me of something, so please don’t put words in my mouth.
‘When I crossed the road afterwards, I said to my husband Tarryn’s trying to warn me.’
Trybus lived with Ms Baird’s parents in the six months following her death – he stopped wearing his wedding ring shortly after his wife died.
‘Two weeks after her death, I found his wedding ring on the bedside table,’ Michelle said.
On the events leading up to her daughter’s death, Michelle said that between August and September 2017, Ms Baird became concerned about police getting involved as she knew Trybus had to have a clear record for the work that he did.
In late August, Ms Baird asked her mother, her father and her brother when they were all together ‘if she should leave Christopher’.
This surprised Michelle, who said: ‘I actually asked Tarryn where it was coming from because I didn’t quite understand.
‘She actually said to me that one of her counsellors had mentioned to her that Christopher was besotted with her for many many years, and now that they are married, she’s now his trophy.
‘I actually said to Tarryn, whatever her decision, I will support her.’
Trybus moved to the UK along with Ms Baird in 2007, and married in 2009.
Trybus, who was 35 at the time of Ms Baird’s death, is also charged with controlling and coercive behaviour between December 2015 and November 2017.
Trybus is charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of rape in relation to Ms Baird
Michelle met Ms Baird at a Nando’s in Bristol with her husband Alan Baird and Trybus in September 2017 following a suicide attempt.
Ms Baird’s parents suggested she could go to a private mental health facility where she would be monitored 24/7 – Michelle believed that the couple ‘could afford it’.
‘She told me that Christopher thought it was too expensive, it was £6,000 a week and he felt it wasn’t the right fit for her,’ she said.
Michelle said that when the idea of removing alcohol from the house was brought up so that Ms Baird wouldn’t have access to it, Trybus didn’t appear to care.
She said: ‘To be quite honest with you, he wasn’t bothered – he really came across not bothered, he basically just didn’t care.’
Ms Baird also feared that Christopher Trybus would never face prison.
Giving evidence today, Swindon Intensive Service (SIS) worker Suzanne Hawkins told the court that Ms Baird didn’t think her husband would ever be sent to prison for what he had allegedly done to her.
She spoke with Ms Baird from July 2017, and told the court: ‘She said ‘he will never go to prison, I’m in prison’.
‘She told me she had two choices as a way out – either to leave her husband, or to die.’
Michelle teared up when telling the court that her daughter told her about two weeks before she passed that she wouldn’t be buying Christmas presents for anyone that year, which was very unusual for her to say.
Ms Baird had also once appeared ‘panicked’ when she realised that she wouldn’t be back home in time to make her husband lunch, her mother told the court.
She said that Ms Baird spoke to her on the day she died, and she sounded ‘upset’, and that she was ‘having an argument with Christopher’ about difficulties she was having paying his brother, who worked for the software business he ran.
She said that when the family went to clear out the couple’s home, she found handcuffs and a debugging device in their bedside table which Trybus put in a rubbish bag.
Ms Baird worked for Trybus’s company from home, doing his administration and accounts.
The trial continues.
