Postmistress husband weeps during murder trial

Robin Garbutt, 45, bludgeoned his unfaithful wife Diana to death then claimed a robber killed her, Teesside Crown Court has heard.

He denies the murder last March in the upstairs living quarters of Melsonby Post Office, near Richmond.

After dialling 999, Garbutt went next door to the home of David and Pauline Dye some time after 8.30am.

The defendant wept in the dock as Mrs Dye described the scene she found in the couple’s bedroom.

Mrs Garbutt, 40, was in pyjama bottoms and a sun top, face down in a bloody pillow on the bed.

She still felt “slightly warm” when Mrs Dye touched her leg.

She did that because Garbutt had said “she’s warm”, the witness explained.

The defendant, still on the phone to the emergency operator, tried to get Mrs Dye to help him turn her over but she was not strong enough.

She told the court Garbutt said: “Oh my God, her face, what about her face?”

Mrs Dye convinced him he had to turn her over and he did so on the bed.

They then tried to find a pulse, without success.

Mrs Dye said: “She was all blue, right across the chest.”

There was matted blood in the victim’s hair, the neighbour said.

When Mrs Dye felt Mrs Garbutt’s wrist to try to find a pulse, it was “coldish”.

Soon after paramedics arrived and took over.

Earlier, Mrs Dye said Garbutt had knocked on her door, asking for her husband who had just gone out.

She told the court: “He said ‘Di’s been attacked’.

“I said ‘Right, I will come Robin’ and I slammed the door and I went with him.”

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues.