Dawn Walker: Maid of honour found bride's body in suitcase dumped in fields

Anne-Marie Metcalfe opened the case zip a few inches and was shocked by the con-tents, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Miss Metcalfe and her partner Shane Barkham lived opposite Thomas Nutt and Dawn Walker on Shirley Grove in Lightcliffe and were at their wedding at Halifax Register Office on October 27 last year.

Miss Metcalfe was the Maid of Honour and Mr Barkham a witness. She said it went well and everyone had a good time.

She described Miss Walker, 52, as ‘chirpy and energetic’ but in 2020 she had seen her with a black eye and cheeks that were cut and swollen.

Forensics officers in the Shirley Grove area of Lightcliffe after the death of Dawn Walker

Miss Metcalfe said Nutt and Miss Walker argued one minute and were ‘loved up’ the next. She had never seen any violence between them but had heard Miss Walker calling out: ‘Tommo, get off me.’

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

In her statement read out in court, Miss Metcalfe said she went to look at the suitcase left in fields behind Nutt’s house. She opened one of the zips a few inches and was shocked by the contents.

Dawn Walker

She called the police and they arrived shortly before 5pm and discovered the body.

Nutt, 45, denies murdering Miss Walker but admits her manslaughter.

Earlier, Nutt’s next-door neighbour, Malcolm Crawshaw, told how he had brayed on his door after hearing a woman’s screams and shouts.

He said he heard noises from upstairs at the address on the night of August 25, 2020.

The walls between the properties were thin and he had heard a few arguments between the couple before.

Nutt, a scrap metal merchant, had a loud voice and he would mainly hear him, but he also heard Dawn shouting.

On the evening in August 2020, Mr Crawshaw said he heard her screaming and shouting: ‘Get off me, leave me alone.’ He said he was shocked and went round and brayed on the front door.

There was no answer and Dawn was still screaming, so he opened the unlocked door and went to the bottom of the stairs.

“I shouted ‘what the f***ing hell are you doing?’ to Tommo."

Nutt came to the top of the stairs and said: ‘It’s all right, Mal, she’s having an asthma attack.’ But Dawn said: ‘Don’t believe him; he’s trying to kill me'.

Mr Crawshaw said he had known Nutt for four or five years when he told him in September last year that he had booked his wedding to Miss Walker. She was close enough to hear and did not look very happy.

Mr Crawshaw and his wife June were invited to the wedding but Mrs Crawshaw was ill and they didn’t go.

At about 11pm on the wedding night, Mr Crawshaw said he heard bumps and bangs from next door but assumed the couple had been drinking.

The following day Nutt came round with some wedding cake saying Dawn was still in bed.

On October 29, Mr Crawshaw saw that Nutt’s car and caravan were gone and assumed the couple had left for their honeymoon.

Two days later, Nutt told him his wife had gone missing.

June Crawshaw said she saw bruises and scratches on Miss Walker’s face in August 2020.

She said Tommo had done it, Mrs Crawshaw said.

He was away for some time after that and things seemed to have improved when he returned.

Mrs Crawshaw said Dawn messaged her three days before the wedding saying she had had two massive panic attacks. Mrs Crawshaw assumed it was nerves and told her to talk to her daughter about it.

The last time she saw Dawn was when she set off for her wedding in a red dress. She seemed happy.

The jury next saw footage from the body-worn camera worn by the police officer who came to investigate Miss Walker’s disappearance.

The court has previously heard that Nutt met PC Thomas Kershaw on his way back from dumping Miss Walker’s body in the wheeled suitcase in bushes behind his house in the early afternoon of October 31.

PC Kershaw noticed that Nutt was sweating but he said he had run to a shop to buy some cigarettes.

Nutt tells the officer Dawn had not said anything to make him worried.

They had a lovely wedding and had gone away for two days.

The trial continues.

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