Villagers kept faith in killer who invented robber with a gun

North Yorkshire Police said only 12 offences had been recorded there in the last year - one stolen vehicle, four thefts and seven reports of criminal damage.

But the quiet village was a hive of activity after Mrs Garbutt’s death on March 23 last year as detectives, journalists and curious passers-by sought to find out what had happened.

The murder divided Melsonby’s 800 residents. Despite compelling evidence against Mrs Garbutt’s husband Robin, many neighbours struggled to accept that he could be her killer.

Dena Dalton knew the couple well because she and Mrs Garbutt helped set up a village book club, which she said would meet for sessions running from 8.15pm “probably till the wine ran out”.

She said Mrs Garbutt was “one of the most loyal, reliable people” she could remember and that Garbutt was an ideal role model for her eight-year-old son because you would never find “a more honest, gentle and kinder person”.

But the jury decided that Garbutt was anything but honest after they heard his version of what happened on the morning his wife’s body was found.

In a 999 call, made at 8.23am, Garbutt told an ambulance operator that his wife had been attacked and there was “blood everywhere”.

He later told police that a robber armed with a gun had come into the shop shortly after the post office safe alarm was de-activated, warning him not to do anything stupid because “we’ve got your wife”.

He said he put cash from the safe into a black holdall as directed before the robber left, and he then went upstairs to find his wife motionless and face down on their bed.

Garbutt elaborated on his account during the trial, telling the jury that his wife must have been alive before the robber charged in because he had twice heard her call his name from their living quarters between 6.15am and 6.45am.

It was a detail he had never mentioned to police and, when questioned about it in the witness box, he claimed to have only remembered it later “because of the situation that I’m in and I’ve been able to read and look at people’s statements”.

But there were holes in his story. Prosecutor David Hatton QC claimed that it “bordered on the absurd” and, unknown to the jury, trial judge Mr Justice Openshaw even took the unusual step of remanding Garbutt in custody after hearing his evidence.

Pc Mark Reed, the second police officer to arrive at the murder scene, said that Garbutt’s account “jumped around” on the morning of the attack.

“He would sob occasionally,” Pc Reed said. “There didn’t seem to be any tears.”

Garbutt challenged a paramedic who assessed his wife’s condition and told him that she had been dead “for a while” and rigor mortis had set in.

He was heard to say “she’s warm”, implying that Mrs Garbutt had only been dead for a short length of time, but this suggestion was contradicted by scientific evidence.

Stomach expert Dr Jennifer Miller was able to establish when Mrs Garbutt died by examining food found in her body and noting the extent to which it had been digested.

Dr Miller estimated that Mrs Garbutt had been attacked between 2.30am and 4.30am - up to six hours before Garbutt rang 999.

Mr Hatton asked the jury to consider the likelihood of “a robber or robbers being prepared violently to kill a female sleeping in her own bed at all, and then, having done so, to wait there for...four to six hours before going downstairs to rob the post office”.

Garbutt’s story was also at odds with evidence related to the post office safe, which took four minutes to open because of a sophisticated alarm system.

Records kept by the security company which monitored the alarm indicated that the safe could not have been open at the time Garbutt called for an ambulance.

Police took dozens of statements from Melsonby residents, one of whom, Katherine Googe, claimed to have seen Garbutt at about 10pm on the night before the murder, walking on the village green and holding a dark holdall. Garbutt denied this, telling the police he was asleep at that time.

Although till receipts showed about 60 customers visited the store on the morning Mrs Garbutt was found dead, not a single resident claimed to have seen a robbery.

But several customers who saw Garbutt in the hours before he dialled 999 told police he had behaved normally behind the shop counter.

Mother-of-two Angela Wood said he looked “pale and tired” but was “polite and cheerful”; milkman David Harper said he was “friendly, affable, personable”; and Dorothy Cole and Deborah Gibson agreed that he had seemed his usual self.

Another customer, Brian Hird, gave evidence in court which appeared to support Garbutt’s account.

Mr Hird said he heard what he thought was a woman’s voice call out ‘Robin’ from the Garbutts’ living quarters. When cross-examined by Mr Hatton, he denied that he could have been mistaken.