Yorkshire bride was killed and stuffed into suitcase by her new husband ‘hours after their wedding’

A bride who was killed by her new husband hours after their wedding said he ‘scared the hell out of her’, a jury was told today. 

Thomas Nutt, 45, is accused of murdering grandmother Dawn Walker, 52, and storing her body in a cupboard before breaking the bones to fold it into a suitcase and dumping it in bushes behind their West Yorkshire home. 

Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald said Nutt’s former partner Kimberley Allcock, who was in a relationship with him for 10 years, said he ‘became a Jekyll and Hyde character’, and had tried to warn Ms Walker. 

He said: ‘Ms Allcock advised Dawn to be careful and Dawn responded […that Nutt] scared the hell out of her.’ 

Mr MacDonald also told the court that Nutt went through a ‘ghastly charade’ with police by mounting a search for the grandmother and reporting her missing to the police. 

He later handed himself in and claimed his new wife had come at him ‘violently screaming’ after they returned from a two-day caravan honeymoon in a lay-by near Skegness. 

But Mr MacDonald said the body was lying in a cupboard for the two days Nutt was on holiday alone after he killed Dawn during on their wedding night. Nutt has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder.

Mr MacDonald also described a series of violent attacks Ms Allcock alleged Nutt had made on her and how she said he was convicted of assaulting her in 2015.

He said: ‘Ms Allcock advised Dawn to be careful and Dawn responded the following day by saying that the defendant scared the hell out of her.’

Going through Ms Allcock’s account, the prosecutor said: ‘He could be very loving and pleasant but when he lost his temper, he would go mad.

‘When that happened, he would become so focussed on his anger that nothing would get through to him and nothing would calm him down.’

Bradford Crown Court heard on Monday that Nutt had seemingly returned home with Dawn on October 30, although she was last seen alive on October 27 by the taxi driver who dropped the couple off after their wedding reception. 

Mr MacDonald told the court that following his return on October 30, Nutt began decorating for Halloween and reported Dawn missing the next day after she failed to meet with her daughter.

Mr MacDonald said a neighbour noticed Nutt was a ‘bit panicky’ as he was with Dawn’s daughter and grandson, and he told the defendant ‘not to worry as he was only talking about Dawn having been away only for an hour and she was probably busy.’

Dawn Walker, left, married Thomas Nutt, right, four days before her body was found in a suitcase at the marital home in West Yorkshire on October 31

The prosecutor said: ‘He even had a joke, which, in the circumstances has a sardonic flavour, when he said to the defendant: ‘Where’ve you buried her Tommo?’

‘When the neighbour made that joke, the defendant started to cry, which surprised him as he had never before seen the defendant cry and, on his account, Dawn had only been away for a short time.’

The court heard that Nutt had asked another neighbour later the same day to go with him to a cemetery between Halifax and Siddal to look for Dawn with him – and even joked he was glad he had not gone on his own.

‘Whilst they were on the journey, the defendant said that he was glad that his neighbour had accompanied him because otherwise people might think that he had murdered Dawn,’ Mr MacDonald said.

Nutt had been spotted earlier that day by the neighbour’s father wheeling a suitcase and he had become suspicious. 

Mr MacDonald said: ‘That set in train a whole series of people who went to the area in which the suitcase had been deposited and realised, eventually, that there was a body in it. 

‘They do not appear to have informed the police immediately about the discovery but eventually, [the neighbour], did ring the police to report it. It would seem that the suitcase had been there for about two hours before the call was made.

‘We will not go through the whole series of events at this stage but you will hear evidence about it. In essence, eventually, [the neighbour] went to the suitcase and opened one of the zips by a few inches and was shocked to see the contents. 

‘Although she didn’t actually confirm that it was Dawn’s body, she had a strong suspicion that it was there.’

As the woman approached her house, Mr MacDonald said, she saw her partner and Nutt returning.

Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald said Nutt’s former partner Kimberley Allcock, who was in a relationship with him for 10 years, said he ‘became a Jekyll and Hyde character’, and had tried to warn Ms Walker (pictured)

On Tuesday, Alistair MacDonald QC, told Bradford Crown Court that Kimberley Allcock, who was in a relationship with Nutt for 10 years, said he ‘became a Jekyll and Hyde character’, and had tried to warn Ms Walker. Pictured:  Dawn Walker and Thomas Nutt at Christmas 

Mr MacDonald said: ‘She was, as were the others with her, upset but she told everyone to act normally. She went into the kitchen and the defendant also entered that room. 

‘He said that it was a good job that he had taken his neighbour with him to the cemetery otherwise people would think that he was dumping Dawn’s body.

‘He then started laughing. She felt sick when she heard those words and she was then convinced that the defendant had dumped Dawn in the suitcase.

‘She managed to get away into the garden and spoke to her partner when they were alone. She told him of her suspicions. When the defendant left the home of hers, he walked off down the street. 

‘He was seen returning in a blue VW car being driven by someone else. Although that person cannot be seen because the defendant is dropped off and then went back to the neighbour’s house before returning to his own.’

Mr MacDonald said the woman’s partner went and confirmed the body was that of Dawn’s and she called the police anonymously.

Prosecuting Alistair MacDonald QC told Bradford Crown Court how Nutt had telephoned police on October 31 last year to tell them that his wife (pictured) had gone missing.

The prosecutor said Nutt then returned and was ‘talking about putting up Halloween decorations’ before he left to erect a gazebo in his front garden and put Halloween decorations there, including blue and white police tape. The man in the blue VW, Mr MacDonald said returned and Nutt left.

Dawn’s body was eventually recovered by police who then received a call from a woman at a solicitor’s who told them she had received a call from Nutt saying his wife’s body was in a suitcase and he was on his way to hand himself in.

Mr MacDonald said, when he handed himself in, Nutt ‘started to cry and said that he and Dawn had been married on 27 October. He said they had gone to a layby in Skegness for two days before returning. He said that she was bipolar and was depressed. He said that she wanted to get divorced.

‘He said that she had put him in jail before having said that he had tried raping her and assaulting her. He said she was going to do that again. 

‘She started screaming and he said he had hit her in the face and put his arm round her neck. He then got more emotional. He confirmed that she had died. He was therefore cautioned and arrested on suspicion of murder.’

He also said they had  ‘a lovely time’ even though it was raining and claimed they watched DVDs in the caravan in a layby.

Nutt also claimed Dawn had been next to him in the passenger seat throughout the whole of the journey there and back.

Dawn Walker, who was killed and stuffed into a suitcase by her new husband after their wedding

The scene after a woman’s body was found at a house in West Yorkshire

But prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC said CCTV footage shows that nobody is sat there.

Nutt has admitted manslaughter, but the prosecution did not accept this plea and insist he killed his wife by hitting her in the head and strangling her to death.

Mr MacDonald claimed Nutt then shoved Dawn’s body into a suitcase and went on a two-day trip to Skegness, before disposing of the bag in a field at the back of his house.

Mr MacDonald said: ‘If he had killed Dawn on the night of the wedding or the following day, and before he went to Skegness, he couldn’t possibly have thought that they had a happy time in the caravan at Skegness watching videos and spending their time in bed together.

‘It is perfectly plain, say the prosecution, that the passenger seat is empty. You can clearly see from that (CCTV) footage the seat itself and its shape.. No one is sitting in that seat.

‘In addition, we have footage of the defendant before he set off, putting items into the front passenger seat where he says Dawn was to sit. 

‘The defendant was, say the prosecution, telling a pack of lies about when Dawn was killed. She was already dead by the time he was on his way to Skegness.’

Mr MacDonald has told the jury how Ms Walker’s body was found in the suitcase in undergrowth four days after the wedding at Brighouse Register Office.

Officers were called to reports of a body at a property on Aysgarth Avenue in Lightcliffe, near Halifax, at 4.38pm on October 31 

Jurors have been shown CCTV footage of Nutt, who denies murder but admits manslaughter, wheeling a large suitcase out of the back of his house in Shirley Grove, Lightcliffe, near Halifax, and into nearby bushes just as a police officer arrives at his front door to follow up the defendant’s missing person report.

He said: ‘He knew that she was dead, he knew full well where Dawn’s body was and that he had hit her forcefully to the face and throttled her to death.’

And he told jurors how Nutt went to ‘the considerable effort’ of packing his wife’s body into a suitcase, breaking one of her legs and some ribs due to the effects of rigor mortis.

The prosecutor told jurors that Nutt told interviewing officers how he put his arm round Ms Walker’s neck when she came running at him on October 30.

Mr MacDonald said that, according to Nutt’s account: ‘It all happened very quickly and her body went light on him and she fell down and may have struck her head on the concrete floor.

‘He said that he had not strangled her in anger, he had done so in an attempt to restrain her and, as he did so, he was whispering to her in order to try and calm her down.

‘He was telling her that he loved her and he had no intention at all of hurting or killing her.’

The trial continues.