Murder trial told of couple’s weekends away

Brian Willis said he had stood in as a relief postmaster at Melsonby Post Office, near Richmond for the couple when they went on holidays before 2008 and as a resident of the village was a regular caller.

He told Teesside Crown Court, where Robin Garbutt is on trial accused of murdering his wife Diana, yesterday that since then there were a number of times he found the post office was closed on a Saturday morning and occasionally on a Monday morning.

He told David Hatton QC prosecuting he understood that was because the couple “had taken a weekend break”.

That surprised both he and his wife because they had previously run a post office themselves, before their retirement, and it was difficult to get permission for such time off over weekends.

“You usually had to have a very good reason, hospital appointments, a death in the family, something of that sort to get permission from the Post Office.”

He said he chatted with Robin Garbutt and offered to stand in on a Saturday or Monday if needed but to his recollection was never asked.

Mr Hatton asked if he knew anything about their lifestyle.

“Well I was aware they had visited certain places for weekends which seemed to me to be rather extravagant locations to visit and I was quite surprised that they were able to afford it,” said Mr Willis, who said he was aware of roughly the salary a postmistress would receive.

Mr Hatton asked what expensive trips he was aware of.

“Well on one occasion I heard they went to Swinton Park for the weekend and for another occasion they went to the Star at Harome,” said Mr Willis.

The judge Mr Justice Openshaw commented one did not need to be an expert to know the Star was expensive.

Garbutt, 45, denies the murder of his 40-year-old wife whose body was found in a bedroom above the post office on March 23 last year.

He told police he found her after a robbery at the post office. The prosecution claim that was a sham and that he was the killer who bludgeoned her to death with a metal bar under pressure of debt and her infidelity.

Mr Willis told the jury his wife was previously the postmistress at Ovington, near Barnard Castle and he had assisted her until their retirement. He was then asked by the Federation of Postmasters to stand in as a relief at other post offices when needed and in that capacity he helped at Melsonby while the couple took some holidays between 2004 until 2008.

He said it was his practice to always check stock and cash when he took over to make sure there were no discrepancies.

Under cross-examination by Jamie Hill, QC, defending Garbutt, he agreed he did not know the personal finances of the couple and agreed he had told police he found Robin Garbutt a little haphazard and disorganised but his accounts always balanced.

He said he was not surprised to learn the take home salary for the post office job was less than £1,000 a month at Melsonby but agreed he had not known the turnover for the shop was estimated by police at £200,000 a year.

Mr Hill suggested Mr Willis had indicated he would not have run the business the way Robin Garbutt, whom he considered was “easy going”, allowing children to wait in the shop for their school bus in the morning or let people on benefits for example “run up a slate”. He agreed he had been told there was about £1,000 on the slate at one stage. The trial continues.