Murderer says 'f*** you' after guilty verdict is greeted by cheers of relief from public gallery

Thomas Nutt said ‘f*** you’ as he was led off to the cells at Bradford Crown Court this afternoon after the guilty verdict was greeted with cheers and exclamations of relief from the public gallery.

Nutt, 46, of Shirley Grove, Lightcliffe, had admitted Dawn Walker’s manslaughter but denied murdering her.

The jury deliberated for little over three hours before finding that the scrap metal dealer intended to kill Miss Walker, 52.

Judge Jonathan Rose told the jurors they had probably ‘heard enough’ in the distressing case and didn’t need to serve on a jury again for ten years.

After the verdict, he said: “Stand up Nutt. You have been found guilty by this jury on extremely strong evidence.”

The only sentence was one of life imprisonment but the court had to set the minimum term Nutt would spend behind bars before he could even be considered for parole.

Nutt will be brought back to the court from prison to be sentenced on Friday, August 19.

During the trial, the court heard that he murdered his wife with a choke hold, causing fatal compression to her neck.

She had a catalogue of injuries that included deep bruising to both sides of her head, a black eye with lacerations, deep bruising to her jaw and a fractured nasal bone and eye socket.

There were fractures of the left tibia and fibula and four broken ribs probably caused after death when Nutt forced her body into the suitcase.

Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC opened the trial by stating: “It is often said that someone’s wedding day and the immediate period after that is one of the happiest times of their life.

“That was not the case with Dawn Nutt, nee Walker, whose body was found stuffed into a suitcase and dumped into some undergrowth in a field towards the back of Thomas Nutt’s house four days after she was married to this defendant.

“The wedding had taken place on October 27, 2021, and the discovery of the body in the suitcase was made on October 31.

“The last known sighting of her alive was in fact made by her maid of honour and that sighting was between 10.30 and 11pm on her wedding night.”

The jury heard that Nutt had left Miss Walker’s body in a cupboard on a bag of potatoes and gone to Skegness alone on ‘honeymoon’ before acting out the ‘ghastly charade’ of looking for her saying she had disappeared.

He phoned the police to report his new wife missing on October 31 saying she had left to visit her daughter in Brighouse and hadn’t turned up there.

The police went to his home to take missing person’s report just as he was wheeling the suitcase away.

He was ‘for all the world like a distraught husband of a new wife who had apparently disappeared without trace,’ Mr MacDonald said.

But Nutt knew perfectly well that her body was in the cupboard because he had killed her and put it there before stuffing it into a suitcase, breaking bones to achieve that.

Later that day he handed himself in at Halifax Police Station.

The jury was shown film of the couple’s wedding day. Miss Walker wore a bright red bridal gown for the ceremony at Halifax Register Office and the celebrations continued at Brighouse’s Prince Albert pub. Witnesses described it as a happy event with Miss Walker in good spirits.

Shane Barkham, a neighbour, said the couple’s relationship was troubled, with regular arguments.

CCTV played in court showed Nutt dragging the wheeled suitcase containing Miss Walker’s body down the garden and dumping it in bushes.

The police officer dealing with the missing person report noticed that he was sweating and had a wet stain on one knee where he had knelt to deposit the case.

Later that afternoon, the maid of honour at the wedding, Anne-Marie Metcalfe, found Miss Walker’s body. She opened the case zip a few inches and was shocked by the contents.

Mr Barkham’s father, Chris, saw Nutt wheeling the suitcase down a snicket at about 2pm and then noticed him relaxed and casual without it.