A jury was informed today that the woman who was killed by her new husband hours after their wedding claimed he “scared the heck out of her.”
Grandmother Dawn Walker, 52, was allegedly murdered by Thomas Nutt, 45, who then allegedly stored her body in a cabinet, broke her bones, folded it into a suitcase, and dumped it in the bushes behind their West Yorkshire house.
According to prosecutor Alistair MacDonald, Nutt’s ex-girlfriend Kimberley Allcock, who dated him for ten years, claimed that he “become a Jekyll and Hyde figure” and had attempted to warn Ms Walker.
Ms. Allcock warned Dawn to exercise caution, and Dawn replied that Nutt frightened the living daylights out of her.
In addition, Mr. MacDonald testified in court that by organising a search for the grandmother and filing a missing person report with the police, Nutt engaged in a “ghastly pantomime” with the authorities.
He later turned himself in and stated that after their two-day caravan honeymoon in a lay-by close to Skegness, his new wife had charged at him “violently screaming.”
However, Mr. MacDonald claimed that after Nutt killed Dawn on their wedding night, the body was left in a cupboard for the two days he was away alone. Nutt admitted to manslaughter but insists that he did not commit murder.
Mr. MacDonald also discussed the alleged violent assaults Ms. Allcock claimed Nutt had committed against her and how, according to her, he was found guilty of assaulting her in 2015.
He claimed that after Dawn was warned by Ms. Allcock to exercise caution, she responded the next day by declaring that the defendant had terrified her to death.
The prosecutor summarised Ms. Allcock’s testimony by saying, “He could be very loving and pleasant but when he lost his temper, he would go crazy.”
Nothing would be able to calm him down when that happened because he would become so consumed with his anger.
Dawn was reportedly seen returning home with Nutt on October 30, despite the fact that she was last observed alive on October 27 by the taxi driver who dropped the couple off after their wedding reception. This information was presented to Bradford Crown Court on Monday.
After his return on October 30, according to Mr. MacDonald, Nutt started preparing for Halloween and, when she failed to arrange a meeting with her daughter the following day, Nutt reported Dawn missing.
When a neighbour saw Nutt with Dawn’s daughter and grandson and saw he seemed a little anxious, Mr. MacDonald claimed the neighbour advised the defendant “not to worry as he was merely talking about Dawn having been away for a short while and she was probably busy.”
Where have you buried her, Tommo? he joked to the defendant, which in the circumstances has a caustic flavour.
“The defendant started to cry when the neighbour made that joke, which shocked him because he had never seen the defendant cry before and, on his account, Dawn had only been gone for a short time.”
The court was informed that Nutt later that day requested a neighbour to accompany him as he searched for Dawn in a cemetery halfway between Halifax and Siddal;
he even made the joke that he was relieved he had not gone alone.
While travelling, the defendant expressed his gratitude to his neighbour for travelling with him because otherwise, Mr. MacDonald claimed, people could have believed that he had murdered Dawn.
The neighbor’s father had grown concerned when he saw Nutt earlier that day hauling luggage.
“That set in motion a whole sequence of persons who went to the area in which the luggage had been dropped and eventually realised there was a body in it,” said Mr. MacDonald.
They don’t seem to have called the police right away to report the discovery, but [the neighbour] did eventually do so.
Before the call, it appeared that the suitcase had been there for around two hours.
“At this time, we won’t go through the entire chain of events, but you will hear testimony about it.” In essence, [the neighbour] ultimately went to the luggage, popped one of the zips up a little, and was shocked to see what was inside.
She had a strong sense that Dawn’s body was there even if she didn’t exactly confirm it.
According to Mr. MacDonald, the woman spotted her partner and Nutt returning as she walked up to her house.
She was unhappy, as were the others who were with her, but she instructed everyone to act normally, according to Mr. MacDonald. She entered the kitchen, and the defendant followed suit.
He claimed that he was glad he had brought his neighbour with him to the cemetery because otherwise, people could have assumed he was disposing of Dawn’s body.
Then he began to laugh. When she heard those statements, she immediately felt horrible, and she became persuaded that the accused had abandoned Dawn in the suitcase.
She was able to escape into the garden where she found her lover and they spoke privately. She informed him of her concerns.
The defendant went away from her house and down the street.
He was observed making his way back in a blue VW being driven by someone else.
Even though the defendant was dropped off at the neighbor’s home before returning to his own, so that person cannot be observed.
According to Mr. MacDonald, the woman’s partner went and verified the body was Dawn’s before making an anonymous police call.
Nutt later returned and, according to the prosecutor, was “talking about putting up Halloween decorations” before he went to build a gazebo in his front garden and decorate it for the holiday with blue and white police tape.
According to Mr. MacDonald, the man in the blue VW came back, and Nutt departed.
When Dawn’s body was eventually found, police were notified by a lady working at a law firm that Nutt had called to claim that his wife’s body was in a suitcase and that he was on his way to turn himself in.
When Nutt turned himself up, Mr. MacDonald claimed, “he started to cry and indicated that he and Dawn had been married on October 27.”
He claimed that before coming home, they had spent two days in a layby in Skegness. She was bipolar, he claimed, and depressed.
He claimed that she desired a divorce.
He claimed that she had locked him up before admitting that he had attempted to rape and abuse her. She would do that again, he claimed.
He said that he had punched her in the face and wrapped his arm around her neck when she began to scream.
Then, his emotions intensified. He attested to her passing away.
As a result, he was warned and placed under custody on suspicion of murder.
In addition, he said that while it was raining, they had “a beautiful time” and watched DVDs in the trailer while parked in a layby.
Dawn, according to Nutt, had been sitting in the passenger seat next to him the entire way there and back.
CCTV evidence, according to prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC, however, reveals that nobody is seated there.
However, the prosecution refuses to accept Nutt’s admission of manslaughter and maintains that he killed his wife by striking her in the head and strangling her to death.
After packing Dawn’s remains into a suitcase for a two-day excursion to Skegness, according to Mr. MacDonald, Nutt allegedly dumped the bag in a field behind his house.
Mr. MacDonald stated, “He couldn’t possible have imagined that they had a nice time in the caravan at Skegness viewing videos and spent their time in bed together if he had killed Dawn on the night of the wedding or the next day, and before he travelled to Skegness.
The prosecution claims that it is obvious that the passenger seat is unoccupied. That (CCTV) video makes the seat and its design quite obvious to observe.
There is no one occupying that seat.
Additionally, we have video of the defendant loading stuff into the front passenger seat, where he claims Dawn was supposed to sit, before he left.
The prosecution claims that the defendant lied repeatedly about the circumstances surrounding Dawn’s death.
When he arrived in Skegness, she had already passed away.
In his testimony to the jury, Mr. MacDonald described how Ms. Walker’s body was discovered in the suitcase hidden in bushes four days after her marriage at Brighouse Register Office.
CCTV evidence, according to prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC, however, reveals that nobody is seated there.
However, the prosecution refuses to accept Nutt’s admission of manslaughter and maintains that he killed his wife by striking her in the head and strangling her to death.
After packing Dawn’s remains into a suitcase for a two-day excursion to Skegness, according to Mr. MacDonald, Nutt allegedly dumped the bag in a field behind his house.
Mr. MacDonald stated, “He couldn’t possible have imagined that they had a nice time in the caravan at Skegness viewing videos and spent their time in bed together if he had killed Dawn on the night of the wedding or the next day, and before he travelled to Skegness.
The prosecution claims that it is obvious that the passenger seat is unoccupied.
That (CCTV) video makes the seat and its design quite obvious to observe. There is no one occupying that seat.
Additionally, we have video of the defendant loading stuff into the front passenger seat, where he claims Dawn was supposed to sit, before he left.
The prosecution claims that the defendant lied repeatedly about the circumstances surrounding Dawn’s death.
When he arrived in Skegness, she had already passed away.
In his testimony to the jury, Mr. MacDonald described how Ms. Walker’s body was discovered in the suitcase hidden in bushes four days after her marriage at Brighouse Register Office.