A woman was driven to suicide after enduring years of ‘extensive and escalating’ domestic and sexual violence at the hands of her husband, a court has heard.
Tarryn Baird was just 34 when she ended her life at the family home in Swindon in November 2017.
Christopher Trybus, now 43, is said to be responsible for her death having subjected her to ‘extensive and escalating controlling, coercive and manipulative behaviour, including sexual violence’ during their marriage.
Trybus, of Swindon, Wiltshire, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with her manslaughter. He also denies charges of controlling and coercive behaviour and rape.
The coercive control charge alleges that Trybus controlled Tarryn through using and threatening violence towards her, sexually assaulting her, monitoring her whereabouts, limiting access to finance, threatening to reveal private information to her family and isolating her from her family.
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Opening the case today, prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors the alleged abuse took place over a sustained period of time ‘behind closed doors’ and during the course of a marriage.
They heard the couple were each born in South Africa and moved to the UK in 2007, marrying two years later and settling in Swindon.
Jurors heard Tarryn did several jobs, eventually working from home doing admin for Trybus’ software company, which required him to travel overseas.
Mr Little said: ‘The defendant sought to and did control many aspects of their relationship, even when he was abroad, as he often was.
‘But it was the control and physical violence meted out to her including sexual violence and the threat of and fear of physical and sexual violence on his part towards her and over time which led to a deterioration in her already weakened mental state and was, we say, a cause – not the sole cause – of her deciding that she should take her own life.
‘She did so in their own home. She had not managed to escape from him, despite seriously considering doing so on a number of occasions.
‘However, we say that constricted by his control she could never go through with leaving him, no doubt we suggest, fearing the consequences if she were to decide to do so, and instead she eventually stopped his control over her in the only way she felt she could – by taking her own life.’
The court heard Tarryn had spoken to a mental health team on November 28, the morning she died, expressing thoughts of suicide and later called 101 asking them to send someone to find her body.
She left a note saying: ‘To my family, I am so sorry but I just couldn’t take it anymore.
‘I know you may not understand this but I just can’t explain the dark cloud that is over me.
‘Please don’t let this break you but know I am now free. Nothing any of you could have done could have changed this please just know that.
‘I love you and please forgive me.’
Mr Little told jurors they will have to ask themselves ‘what it was she just could not take any more if it wasn’t the defendant’s controlling and coercive manipulation’.
Trybus, a software consultant and developer, is on bail and denies the charges.
His trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.
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