Court hears Thomas Nutt's account of killing new wife Dawn Walker in Lightcliffe

A man accused of murdering his new wife within days of their wedding told police he "chucked" the suitcase containing her body over bungalows, a court has heard.

Prosecutors say Thomas Nutt, 45, killed Dawn Walker, 52, within hours of their wedding on 27 October last year and stored her body in a cupboard before breaking bones to fold it into a suitcase.

Nutt, of Shirley Grove, Lightcliffe, near Halifax, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.

The trial at Bradford Crown Court has heard how Nutt carried out a "ghastly charade" by reporting his wife missing and taking her daughter to search for her after killing her. He later handed himself in to police.

On the second day of the trial, prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC told the jury about Nutt's police interview.

Mr MacDonald said Nutt told officers he dragged the suitcase through the garden.

Nutt is then said to have told them: "I had gone through the gate at the bottom of the garden where there’s a load of rubbish and I chucked the suitcase over to the bungalows behind into the corner."

Mr Mac Donald said: "He said that he had done all this because he knew the police were going to come and search the house."

'He was telling her that he loved her'

In a further interview, Nutt gave police more details about his wife's death. He told them it happened on 30 October, after they had spent a few days in a caravan in a layby near Skegness following their wedding.

Mr MacDonald said: "Within 30 to 40 minutes of their return, he said that she was saying she wanted a divorce and was screaming... He said that he had pushed her away but she had come back at him as she did when she was bipolar and really angry and violent."

The prosecutor added: "He said he had not strangled her in anger but 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."

Mr MacDonald said it was the prosecution case that Nutt went to Skegness alone, having killed his wife on their wedding night or the day after, and leaving her body in the house.

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 jury was told on Tuesday that Ms Walker had told Nutt's former partner that he "scared the hell out of her".

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, the court heard.

Going through Ms Allcock's account, Mr MacDonald 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."

Mr MacDonald 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."

The trial continues.