A man accused of subjecting his wife to a campaign of physical and sexual violence told a court that discovering she had died by hanging was the 'worst day of my life'. Christopher Trybus, 43, is charged with the manslaughter of his wife Tarryn Baird, 34, as well as two counts of rape and coercive and controlling behaviour. He denies all charges.
Winchester Crown Court heard on Friday that Baird was found dead at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 28 November 2017. Trybus was on a work trip in Stuttgart, Germany, when he received the news. 'I was just in such a state of shock and it hit me. I went back to my desk and booked a flight,' he said. He described breaking down in tears on his way to the airport, adding: 'It's not something anyone can prepare themselves for.'
The court was played an audio recording Baird made of an alleged assault during sex. Trybus claimed the noises were 'bumps and thumps' and that the microphone had picked up sounds like a door moving. 'It's hard to say exactly what's going on but certainly not me assaulting or restraining her,' he said.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC asked Trybus if he was angry at being labelled a 'wife-beater' by Baird, who accused him of assaulting or sexually assaulting her on 25 occasions. Trybus replied: 'It's difficult to be angry with someone who is dead.' When pressed why he was not furious if Baird was 'lying her teeth off every week', he said: 'I don't know the reasons for that and me being angry won't change any of that.'
The court also heard that Trybus got a new phone on the same day Baird was interviewed by police about abuse allegations, resulting in the loss of messages from his old phone. Little suggested Trybus was 'eager to remove any evidence of domestic abuse', which he denied. Baird's diary entries describing increasingly rough sex and her attempts to get into a women's refuge were also read. Trybus said: 'There was a lot of strange things she wrote in her diary.' The trial continues.
