Man who dumped wife's body in suitcase after wedding night murder jailed

A man who murdered his wife on their wedding night before dumping her body in a suitcase has been jailed for at least 21 years.

Thomas Nutt, 46, strangled diminutive 52-year-old Dawn Walker at their home in Lightcliffe, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, within hours of their wedding on 27 October last year.

He then left her body in a cupboard and took a caravan to Skegness where he spent a number of nights in a layby.

After returning, he broke her bones to be able to stuff her body into a suitcase and threw it over a fence into undergrowth near their home on Shirley Grove.

Nutt took Ms Walker's daughter on a bogus search in what the prosecution called a "ghastly charade" and put up Halloween decorations in his house before handing himself in to police.

He later admitted he had killed Ms Walker, but claimed it was unintentional as he tried to restrain her during an argument after she threatened to divorce him.

Nutt pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder. But he was found guilty of murder after a trial at Bradford Crown Court.

Handing down a life sentence with a minimum term of 21 years, Judge Jonathan Rose said the evidence showed the murder had taken place on the wedding night.

He told Nutt: "You then desecrated her body, hiding it in a cupboard while you enjoyed a short holiday before forcing her body into a suitcase, deceiving her family and friends when she went missing. I find you to be without remorse."

He added: "Dawn Walker died because you are a bully, used to getting your own way with women, used to controlling and manipulating women and used to using your considerable size advantage to inflict violence on women if you considered it necessary to do so."

In a victim statement, Ms Walker's daughter Kiera-Lee Guest told the court Nutt put up Halloween decorations in the house even while Ms Walker was lying dead.

Ms Guest said Nutt knew what he had done when she went from place to place with a photo of her mother, asking if people had seen her.

She said: "Justice will be served for my beautiful mother."

Ms Walker's sister Lisa said Nutt manipulated his victim and isolated her from family for three years "before his ungodly hands took her away from us forever".

Lisa Walker told the court: "I mourn for my sister who suffered so much and felt like she had nobody to turn to because this man made her feel worthless."

Nutt, who sat arms folded and picking his shoes during the sentencing hearing, sarcastically applauded the judge as he was taken from the court. There were cheers from the public gallery as he was sentenced.