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A woman allegedly driven to suicide by her husband told her old school friend that he raped her while strangling her with a belt, a court has heard.
Carina Silva told the court how Tarryn Baird was ‘hysteric’ after she informed her about the alleged sex attack by Christopher Trybus.
Trybus, 43, is accused of being responsible for Ms Baird death’s because he subjected her to ‘extensive’ acts of manipulative behaviour and sexual violence.
Ms Baird hanged herself aged 34 at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire.
Giving evidence to the jury, Ms Silva said that Trybus had also hit Ms Baird up to 25 times during their ‘hostile’ relationship.
She said that the abuse by Trybus had left her a ‘hollow shell.’
Ms Silva met Ms Baird at school in their homeland Johannesburg, South Africa, when she was 14-years-old and Ms Baird was 16, while playing hockey.
They remained friends up until Ms Baird, 34, took her own life on November 28, 2017.
Tarryn Baird, 34, (pictured) was found at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, in November 2017
Christopher Trybus arriving at Winchester Crown Court where he is on trial for manslaughter
Prosecutor Rebecca Fairbairn asked her: ‘What did she say about their relationship?’
Ms Silva said: ‘She said it was hostile, she enjoyed spending time with him. But most of the time it was hostile and she was scared of him.
‘Every time we spoke she would tell me more. She appeared frightened.
‘She quite frequently told me that he was abusing her, hitting her, but then she would sometimes retract it so I didn’t really know how to deal with the situation.
‘She said he hit her, she said there was a lot of swearing.’
Ms Fairbairn asked her: ‘Are you able to say how many times Tarryn said that he hit her?’
Ms Silva said: ‘I have got a clear indication of close to 25 times.’
She told Winchester Crown Court how her old friend Ms Baird opened up to her about the alleged rape after they met up to celebrate Ms Silva’s engagement at Paddington train station.
She said Ms Baird was at first ‘bubbly’ but then her mood changed and she asked her what was wrong.
Ms Silva added: ‘She described two occasions, one of the times Chris came home and he was angry and they had an argument.
‘He took her to the spare bedroom and raped her. She said he strangled her.’
She also told the jury: ‘She mentioned a belt.’
Ms Fairbairn asked: ‘Do you remember how Tarryn was when she spoke about this incident?’
Ms Silva said Ms Baird was left in pain and said: ‘She was hysteric.’
The prosecutor asked Ms Silva had suggested going to the police, to which she said she had.
Ms Silva continued: ‘She told me the pain she was in afterwards.
‘About that incident, she said how sore her body was and she couldn’t move her neck because she said to me she was strangled.’
Ms Silva tried to ‘force’ Ms Baird to come home with her after this, but Ms Baird refused the offer.
Ms Silva told her to keep a diary after this so that there would be ‘evidence if she needed it’.
She then described how her friend changed after that and said: ‘She was not my friend any more. She was a hollow shell.
‘We used to laugh for hours, but she just became hollow.’
The court has also heard how Ms Baird suffered from PTSD after witnessing two armed hijackings in South Africa.
Ms Silva told the jury that Ms Baird witnessed a shooting while she was living in her early 20s, and this made her ‘more nervous’ for some time.
‘Before coming to the UK, she seemed to be her normal self again,’ she said.
Ms Silva said that the decision to move to the UK had been ‘extremely fast’.
Trybus moved to the UK along with Ms Baird in 2007, and married in 2009.
Ms Baird worked for Trybus’s company from home, doing his administration and accounts.
IT consultant Trybus is charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of rape in relation to Ms Baird.
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.
He denies the charges.
Yesterday the court heard that Ms Baird took 25 photographs of injuries before she died which show bruising to her face, torso and arm.
She sent two of the photos to her mother Michelle Baird and the same ones to her husband Christopher Trybus – but he did not reply.
Other photos were sent from her Apple iPhone 7 to friends in the months leading up to her death, jurors were told.
Ms Baird’s mobile was restored to factory settings – which deletes personal information – just over a year before her death, the court heard.
But data on the device was backed up on the iCloud and was investigated by police after she died, a police expert said.
On Monday, jurors were read diary entries from Ms Baid in which she said her husband got progressively rougher during sex with her and enjoyed it when she fought back.
In one from early 2016 she wrote: ‘I will never forget the day it all overflowed and he blew up.’
Ms Baird continued: ‘Progressively sex got rougher and the more I fight back, the more he enjoys it. It’s like there was this side of him hidden all these years.’
He has insisted he ‘loved and cherished’ his wife telling lawyers her purported domestic abuse injuries were from ‘kinky bondage’ and consensual ‘rough sex’.
Earlier this month, the court heard how Ms Baird told a crisis hotline they ‘needed to send someone around’ because she ‘felt like ending it’ only hours before she was found dead
His lawyers have suggested Ms Baird had ‘mental health problems’ and her suicide was a ‘cry for help that went tragically wrong’.
The trial continues.