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A husband who ‘drove his wife to suicide’ has claimed he has been unfairly accused because of an ‘agenda’ that women who make accusations of domestic violence ‘must be telling the truth’, a court has heard.
Christopher Trybus is on trial, accused of being responsible for Tarryn Baird’s death because he subjected her to ‘extensive’ acts of manipulative behaviour and sexual violence.
Ms Baird took her own life aged 34 at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire, on November 28, 2017.
Trybus, 43, is charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of rape in relation to Ms Baird.
His barrister, Katy Thorne told jurors that they should find him not guilty of causing his late wife’s death as he has been ‘unfairly accused’.
In her closing speech today, Ms Thorne told Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire that Ms Baird made false allegations and police have been caught up in her lies.
Ms Thorne said she herself is a ‘fully paid-up member of the feminist brigade’, but said that the police had lost sight of the fact that women ‘do make false allegations’.
It’s alleged that Trybus unlawfully killed Ms Baird on November 28, 2017, when Ms Baird hanged herself at their home in Swindon.
Tarryn Baird (pictured) took her own life aged 34 at their home in Swindon, Wiltshire, on November 28, 2017
Christopher Trybus (pictured with current wife Bea Trybus outside court), 43, is on trial accused of being responsible for Tarryn Baird’s death because he subjected her to ‘extensive’ acts of manipulative behaviour and sexual violence
Concluding the defence case at Winchester Crown Court, Ms Thorne said: ‘Having a quick count-up of the men on the jury… Or you’re the partner or the parent or the sibling of a man.
‘You might feel very afraid now, because if you enter into a relationship with a woman who’s making allegations against you, even if they turn out to be untrue, you will be prosecuted even if the allegations are uncredible, you will be prosecuted.
‘Even if you can prove that they aren’t true, you will be prosecuted within an inch of your life.
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‘You will be expected to withstand an investigation over years and years and three separate police investigations by two different forces.’
She described the prosecution as pursuing a ‘dogma’ and the case as ‘Kafkaesque’.
‘They are totally obsessed with a dogma, this whole case is based on an agenda that when women allege violence and domestic abuse, they must be telling the truth,’ she said.
Ms Thorne said she was a feminist, but said that women can hurt men ‘in other ways’ than violence.
She said that police have sought to change the way they deal with sexual violence and sexual offences because the way these crimes have been dealt with in the past ‘wasn’t good’.
Ms Thorne continued: ‘But have they lost sight now of what’s right?
‘In the name of the common good, have they lost sight of the individual case of looking at the evidence, of recognising that women do lie, do make false allegations, they aren’t all telling the truth.
‘And for the common good, for the protection of women, they are ignoring the glaring and obvious holes in their case and prosecuting an innocent man.’
Trybus (pictured) is charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and two counts of rape in relation to Ms Baird
Ms Thorne asked how Trybus was ‘supposed to answer the allegations of a ghost from 10 years ago’.
‘If the prosecution is right, Christopher Trybus must be the most depraved, violent, despicable man that you have ever met or even heard about – a sexual predator, a violent monster,’ Ms Thorne said.
She said that Trybus was ‘unfairly accused’ and ‘has been through enough’.
Ms Thorne said that there may have been a ‘perfect storm of reasons’ for Ms Baird making up the allegations, that she may have been a ‘woman who was bored and lonely’ and ‘angry with her husband for leaving her abroad all the time for work, leaving her alone’.
‘Does it all coincide with her encouraging Christopher Trybus into racier and racier sex or is that deliberate?’ she added.
Concluding the prosecution case, prosecutor Tom Little KC said that domestic abuse of Ms Baird became ‘normalised’.
The prosecutor said: ‘We say that having considered that carefully, considering obviously the inconsistencies there are on occasion, for the reasons I gave you yesterday, she’s telling [a Swindon Women’s Aid worker] and [her GP] Dr Jones the truth about the sustained and significant domestic abuse throughout this period of time and which ultimately led, because it was a significant factor in the decision to take her life, in the taking of her life.’
Mr Little said that there was ‘evidence of isolation from her family’ given by Ms Baird’s mother, Michelle Baird.
He said this was caused by Trybus ‘repeatedly poisoning the well’ by saying things like ‘she’s just drinking too much’.
‘It’s an interesting contrast between that evidence and the evidence that he gives,’ the prosecutor said.
Mr Little added that a witness statement Trybus gave to police was ‘grossly misleading’.
‘It’s clear that he had been through her diary,’ the prosecutor said.
The court had previously heard that if the dates were correct in her diary, the final three days before she died looked as if they had been removed.
The prosecutor also said of her suicide note: ‘If what the defendant says is right and he has never laid a finger on her, other than the application of a soft fluffy collar, it beggars belief doesn’t it that there wouldn’t be a letter addressed to him unless he was a reason for part of the dark cloud that was over her.’
Her note was previously read to the court – it said: ‘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.’
The trial continues.
