Christopher Trybus accused of years-long abuse that preceded wife's suicide, court told

christopher trybus is accused of a campaign of physical and sexual violence that prosecutors say led his wife, Tarryn Baird, to take her own life; the trial opened at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday, February 24.

Trial opens as man denies manslaughter, rape and coercive control charges

Christopher Trybus, 43, is charged with the manslaughter of his wife, Tarryn Baird, two counts of rape and coercive and controlling behaviour. He denies all the charges. Prosecutors told jurors the trial began at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday, February 24 and that they say the alleged conduct escalated over the two years before Baird's death.

Prosecutors say abuse escalated and included two rapes in late 2016

Tom Little KC, prosecuting, told the jury that Trybus raped Baird twice in late 2016. The court heard one alleged rape followed an argument over whether Trybus would pay school fees for Baird's cousin; Little told jurors Trybus had tried to strangle his wife before forcing himself on her. The prosecution said the accused also allegedly raped her following an argument, hit her around the head with a phone and strangled her, causing her to pass out.

Diary entries, monitoring and attempts to leave

The jury was read diary entries in which Baird recorded a change in the relationship. One entry said: "One night, during sex, I felt his hands around my neck. Something was unleashed that night. Progressively, sex got rougher. The more I fight back, the more he enjoys it. " In the diary she added this was "a side" of her husband "that has been hidden all these years. " Prosecutors said Trybus had installed an app on Baird's mobile phone to monitor her whereabouts and on one occasion questioned how long she had spent at a GP surgery.

Medical visits, injuries and specific incidents in 2016–2017

Baird, 34, was found dead at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 28 November 2017. The court heard she visited her doctor on numerous occasions in the months before her death and that she eventually alleged Trybus had been violent to her. In October 2016 she told her doctor and a domestic abuse charity that her husband had tied a rope around her neck. In November 2016 she told her doctor she had tried to leave but he had hit her with a metal pole. An incident alleged to have taken place in January 2017 involved Trybus attacking her with a metal bar, punching, kicking and dragging her along the ground and strangling her with a belt; her doctor noticed bruising and friction burns on her body.

Prosecution frames control, isolation and threat as drivers of her death

Tom Little KC told the jury the coercive control charge alleges Trybus controlled Ms Baird by using and threatening violence, sexually assaulting her, monitoring her whereabouts, limiting access to finance, threatening to reveal private information to her family and isolating her from her family. Little said Trybus carried out "extensive and escalating controlling, coercive and manipulative behaviour including sexual violence of two rapes and other sexual assaults. " He said the conduct took place "over a sustained period of time behind closed doors and all of it during the course of a marriage" and led in November 2017 to Baird taking her own life by hanging.

Attempts to escape, threats to family and the note she left

Prosecutors told the court Baird made "detailed plans" to escape to a women's refuge a few weeks after incidents in 2016, but those plans were foiled when Trybus, described in court as a software developer, returned early from a business trip. Little said Trybus allegedly threatened to tell Baird's parents she was addicted to drugs and alcohol "and that would prevent them from believing her if she told them about domestic abuse. " Baird had told clinicians she was "scared to leave" and said she did not "know how many more beatings she could take. " She left a note that read: "To my family, I am so sorry but I just couldn't take it any more. I know you may not understand this but I just can't explain the dark cloud that is over me. " Baird worked at an opticians.

Prosecution urges jurors to consider the link between control and death

Little asked jurors: "We ask you not to lose sight in this case of how she would eventually take her own life by hanging. " He described a catch-22 in which Baird may have felt she could either stay and endure continued violence or leave and face greater risk if complaints to police "might not go anywhere. " The prosecution says that constricted by his control she could never go through with leaving and instead stopped his control "in the only way she felt she could by taking her own life. "

It is unclear in the provided context what the next scheduled hearing in the case is.