Barrister says ‘dead woman was put on trial’ after husband cleared of manslaughter | Violence against women and girls

A lawyer has claimed there was a “dead woman on trial” in the case of Christopher Trybus, who was acquitted of manslaughter by a jury.

Charlotte Proudman’s comments came after Trybus was found not guilty by a jury of eight women and four men who deliberated for more than 40 hours. He was acquitted of all charges: manslaughter, coercive and controlling behavior and two counts of rape.

The case was filed after his wife, 34-year-old Tarryn Baird, committed suicide in 2017. Before her death, Tarryn Baird made allegations that Trybus was abusive towards her.

Trybus’ defense argued that Baird made the false allegations because he was “bored and lonely” and “desperately seeking help” for mental health issues, and that he “felt he was not receiving that help and may have become addicted to the attention his allegations brought.”

Trybus, 44, denied all the accusations and said he was unaware of his wife’s allegations before her death. He told the court: “I feel bad that he was in a place where he would say these things; what was going through his mind?”

He said the day Baird died was “the worst day of my life, absolutely awful, I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Baird had lived with PTSD from witnessing violence in South Africa, where the couple lived before moving to the UK, and had overdosed on several prescription drugs in the months leading up to his death.

Trybus told the court he could not have caused some of the injuries Baird presented to doctors as he was not in the country at the time.

After the hearing, Proudman criticized Trybus’ defense for aspects of his closing argument.

The defense had questioned how Trybus “should have responded to the ghost allegations from 10 years ago.” He described the case as “Kafkaesque” and suggested the prosecution had “an agenda.”

Trybus lawyer Katy Thorne KC said: “They are completely obsessed with dogma, this whole case is based on an agenda that women should tell the truth when they allege violence and domestic abuse.”

Proudman said he felt the comments meant “a dead woman was on trial” while “the defendant faded into the background.”

Thorne said Proudman’s words “did not accurately reflect what was told to the jury” and showed “a limited understanding of the facts of the case.” He said Proudman, who practices family law, did not appear in court to hear evidence during the trial.

Trybus’ defense argued that the case carried echoes of the French Revolution, in which innocent people were driven by a cause that ultimately sought to achieve a positive goal, and compared Trybus to Mr. Cellophane in the film Chicago, likening Baird to Roxy, a murderer who manipulated her husband.

Thorne also made a direct appeal to the men on the jury, saying: “You may be very scared right now, because if you enter into a relationship with a woman who makes allegations against you, even if those allegations turn out to be false, even if the allegations are not credible, you will be sued, you will be sued.”

Proudman said: “[The defence] While we claim that the criminal justice system has an ‘agenda’ to believe women, the system actually barely prosecutes rape and routinely re-traumatizes victims. “This claim is false and misleading.”

He also criticized the defense for “telling male jurors to fear false allegations” and said they were “vanishingly rare” and represented less than 2% of reports made.

In response, Thorne said: “This case was prosecuted by the most senior prosecutor in the country and presided over by a senior Supreme Court judge with a background in discrimination law. If I had said something to the jury that was inappropriate or did not reflect the evidence in the case, the prosecution and the judge would have objected. They did not object.”

“Dr Proudman was not present at any part of the trial and did not hear any evidence. His comments do not accurately reflect what was told to the jury and indicate a limited understanding of the facts of the case.”

But Janaya Walker, interim director of End Violence Against Women, said many women who die by suicide are “treated as suspects” by the criminal justice system. “Successive governments have rightly taken action to address the fact that the criminal justice system and courts are an area that is often damaged and re-traumatised… with high dropout rates and low prospects for justice.

“However, we can see that harmful sexist beliefs about women are still widely prevalent, with women being treated as suspects even after they die by suicide, including a culture of disbelief and unfair allegations of false claims, which are extremely rare.”

Although the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has not yet seen a successful case in a jury trial for manslaughter following a suspected suicide related to domestic violence, it has said it will consider bringing cases where there is evidence to do so.

A spokesman for the CPS said: “We respect the jury’s verdict. The jury heard all the evidence and reached a verdict.”

in England and Ireland, Samaritans You can contact freephone 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the number. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline At 988, continue the conversation 988lifeline.orgor Send message to HOMEPAGE To connect with a crisis counselor, call 741741. Crisis support service in Australia Lifeline 13 11 is 14. Other international helplines can be reached at: befrienders.org