Man accused of driving wife to suicide says she made up abuse for attention

A man accused of driving his wife to suicide through a ‘tsunami’ of abuse says she had mental health problems and was ‘addicted’ to the attention she got from making false allegations, a court has heard.

Christopher Trybus, 43, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with manslaughter over the death of Tarryn Baird, who was just 34 when she was found dead at the family home in Swindon in November 2017.

He is said to have subjected her to ‘extensive and escalating controlling, coercive and manipulative behaviour including sexual violence’ throughout their marriage.

Jurors heard there was a ‘tsunami’ of abuse allegations – including being punched, choked during sex, strangled with rope and being hit with a metal pole – as well as a ‘clear history of rape’.

They are chronicled in reams of GP records, photos she took of herself and even a phone recording of one alleged sex attack which was later discovered on the handset by her mum, the court was told.

Tarryn left a note before ending her life, saying: ‘I just couldn’t take it anymore.’

Katy Thorne KC, defending Trybus, told jurors today that it is ‘without question a tragic case’ but said ‘nothing you decide in this courtroom can alter the grief and loss of those who loved her’.

She added: ‘The defence position in this case is actually a straightforward one – Christopher Trybus was never abusive to his wife, he didn’t beat her, he didn’t rape her, he didn’t coercively control her and he didn’t cause her death.

‘On the contrary, he loved her and cherished her deeply and his case is that without anyone’s knowledge, Tarryn Baird was making demonstrably false allegations to health professionals.

‘There are injuries, but the defence case is that on a number of occasions Tarryn Baird made allegations of violence which were demonstrably false, for example, by reporting injuries to health professionals when Christopher Trybus was not even in the country.

‘The defence case is that one obvious example of that on November 16, he says that he was out of the country, having left on November 8 and not returned until November 23.

‘And yet during that period, Tarryn Baird made more than one set of allegations of domestic violence and took photographs of injuries, each of which she said was caused by him.’

Yesterday, jurors were taken through dozens of incidents in which Tarryn went to her GP with various injuries.

They heard she initially put them down to innocuous things like falling over or bumping into something, before later confiding that she was regularly being abused by her husband.

But whenever it looked as though the police would become involved, Tarryn withdrew the claims and reverted to blaming herself, the court was told.

Tom Little KC, prosecuting, said Tarryn was ‘constricted by [Trybus’s] control’ and too terrified of ever leaving him in case he found her.

He told the jury: ‘Instead, she eventually stopped his control over her in the only way she felt she could – by taking her own life.’

Ms Thorne said they should question the ‘reliability’ of Tarryn’s claims.

‘You will hear that Tarryn Baird had mental health problems which were longstanding and the defence case is that she was desperately seeking help and feeling she wasn’t receiving it and she may have become addicted to the attention that her allegations brought,’ she said.

‘The defence case is that the reason why she never made the allegations to the police or went to a refuge was because the allegations weren’t true and she didn’t want that fact to be exposed.’

Ms Thorne said Trybus denied sexually assaulting his wife, adding: ‘Theirs was a healthy, consensual marital sex life enjoyed by both of them.

‘It included some practices which may not be familiar or comfortable to everyone, including bondage and rough sex.

‘What goes on in other people’s bedrooms can be surprising, the defence case is that it was consensual.’

She said an injury to Tarryn’s neck was caused by a ‘collar’ worn during sex and the audio recording of the alleged sexual assault was in fact ‘the two of them engaged in that kinky bondage-type sex’, adding: ‘But it was entirely consensual.’

Ms Thorne continued: ‘The allegations of Terryn Baird being trapped and controlled, the defence says are untrue and the defence will suggest that they will turn out to be just false.

‘You will need to consider her claims that she was being financially controlled or kept away from family and friends bears scrutiny, his case is the absolute opposite is true.’

She added: ‘Health professionals were being told a false story and her boredom and troubled mind was leading her to make allegations to seek care and attention.’

Ms Thorne said that the jury would need to consider if Tarryn’s death was a ‘cry for help that went tragically wrong’.

She added: ‘The defence case is that even if you find there was domestic abuse – which is denied – you cannot be sure that it caused her to take her own life.

‘The defence case is that there are other matters such as her mental health difficulties and withdrawal of services from her which led her to take her own life.’

Trybus, who is a software consultant and developer, denies the charges and the trial continues.

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