THE husband of a bride who disappeared shortly after their wedding told her daughter she must be ‘doing a Halloween trick’ by going missing on October 31, a jury heard.
Kiera-Lee Guest told Bradford Crown Court yesterday she was supposed to meet Dawn Walker in Brighouse four days after she married Thomas Nutt but she didn’t turn up.
Miss Guest said in her police interview played at Bradford Crown Court that she and Nutt searched shops in Brighouse looking for her mother.
He said Miss Walker must be ‘doing a Halloween trick’ by disappearing.
The jury has heard that Miss Walker’s body was found dumped in a suitcase in bushes near Nutt’s home on the afternoon of October 31 last year.
Nutt, 45, of Shirley Grove, Lightcliffe, is on trial denying her murder. He has admitted her manslaughter.
Miss Guest, who was in court while the interview was played, said her mother met Nutt on Facebook. They were very happy and he moved in with her quickly.
But then Nutt would argue and he was a big man with a loud voice and he would bellow at Miss Walker.
“He went from zero to a hundred in seconds,” Miss Guest said.
He would say her mother was difficult but he snapped constantly at her.
On their wedding day on October 27 last year, they were fine but it was like her mother couldn’t be bothered getting into her bridal clothes. She didn’t look happy and she was shaking.
She said ‘something bad is going to happen, Kiera’ but she told her mother she was being paranoid.
On the wedding night, Nutt was downing shots and drinking pints, although he wasn’t a big drinker.
Miss Guest was later told that her mother had lost her phone and she and Nutt were going away for a few days.
She was supposed to meet her on the morning of October 31 but she didn’t turn up.
“I don’t understand why he took me round Brighouse looking for her when she was dead in the house,” she said.
“I should have listened to Mum when she said something bad was going to happen.”
Miss Guest described Nutt as about six feet tall with muscles on his arms.
Miss Walker would behave like she was walking on eggshells and have to be cautious about what she was saying.
When Miss Guest wanted to spend time with her mother, she was told by her that she and Nutt were going ‘scrapping’; collecting metal from the streets.
Miss Guest said she moved to Egypt until early 2020 but she kept in phone contact with her mother.
When she returned to the country she noticed that her outspoken mother ‘bowed down’ to Thomas.
She moved in with the couple at Shirley Grove but there were arguments.
“The smallest thing could rattle Thomas…he would always take things out of proportion,” she said.
Earlier, prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC alleged that Nutt had already killed Miss Walker and put her body in a cupboard when he said they were on honeymoon in Skegness.
Nutt told the police he and his new wife had ‘a lovely time’ even though it was raining. They watched DVDs in the caravan in a layby.
“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,” Mr MacDonald stated.
Nutt said that Miss Walker had been in the passenger seat throughout the whole of the journey there and back.
Mr MacDonald said: “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.”
The trial continues.
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