A mother broke down in tears today saying she had been living in a ‘nightmare’ after her daughter was allegedly driven to suicide by an abusive husband.
Michelle Baird broke down as she described seeing various injuries her daughter Tarryn suffered in the run-up to her death.
Christopher Trybus is accused of driving his wife to suicide after repeatedly raping the 34-year-old and meting out frequent beatings, strangling her with a belt and a rope, battering her with a metal pole and kicking and punching her in the face and abdomen.
In an unprecedented case, prosecutors say the defendant is legally responsible for his wife’s death, even though he was abroad when Tarryn was found dead by hanging in the garage of their Swindon home on November 28, 2017.
Today Mrs Baird told Winchester Crown Court she had seen her daughter with various injuries to her face and arms, but Trybus dismissed her concerns claiming his wife was an alcoholic who kept falling over.
Breaking down in tears, the mother said: ‘It is just traumatising. This nightmare I have been living for eight years.’
She told the court that the couple had previously attempted to foster a child, but their application was not accepted after Trybus admitted he would be prepared to hit a child to reprimand them.
Mrs Baird claimed her daughter was once ‘confident and popular’, but she ‘withdrew’ after their marriage.
Christopher Trybus is accused of manslaughter
Michelle Baird pictured outside court today
She described how Tarryn had to ask her husband for permission to leave the house and was under pressure to make sure lunch and afternoon tea was on the table at the same time every day.
Mrs Baird said: ‘Tarryn would prepare Christopher’s lunch. It had to be on the table at 12.15pm. Tea time was 3.15pm, she had to offer him tea and biscuits.
‘She would sit in the living room with the doors closed.
‘She did not want to disturb him, she didn’t want to make a noise.’
Trybus is accused of waging ‘extensive and escalating controlling, coercive and manipulative behaviour including sexual violence of two rapes and other sexual assaults.’
Mrs Baird said she questioned Trybus about the injuries that her daughter received: ‘I questioned what was happening. The answer I got was she keeps falling, she is drinking, she is taking prescription medication and she does not stop.
‘He told me she was an alcoholic.’
Mrs Baird said her daughter also hid the abuse: ‘She withdrew from her family.
‘That started towards the later part of 2015, early 2016.
’She would always say she was fine. She said she was experiencing dizzy spells. But she did not want to talk to me, she said, “If I wanted to tell you, I would tell you”.’
Earlier, the victim’s friend Libby Clarke told how Tarryn had confided about her husband’s physical abuse after she was hospitalised.
Tarryn Baird was found dead at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, in November 2017
Christopher Trybus with his current wife Bea Trybus outside Winchester Crown Court
She told Mrs Clarke that police could not get involved as it would ‘get me killed’, jurors heard.
Later, the victim allegedly told her friend that she had planned to leave her husband, but ‘broke down’.
Mrs Clarke recalled: ‘She said that when Christopher hurt her, it numbed the pain.’
When asked what she meant, Mrs Clarke replied: ‘Being beaten.’
Winchester Crown Court has previously heard that the 34-year-old was too afraid to leave her abusive husband, deciding that the only way of escaping him was by committing suicide.
The software consultant denies manslaughter, coercive or controlling behaviour and two counts of rape.
The trial continues.
