Christopher Trybus – cleared of manslaughter, coercive and controlling behaviour and two counts of rape – says he fears the “stain on my name will follow me forever” after Tarryn Baird died by suicide
Christopher Trybus and his wife Bea told how his eight-week trial had left them awake at night fearing he would go to prison(Image: Ben Mitchell/PA Wire)
A husband cleared of exerting a campaign of coercive control over his wife before she took her own life has denied ever being violent, insisting: “I loved her.”
Christopher Trybus, 44, stood trial for manslaughter after prosecutors claimed he subjected Tarryn Baird to years of coercion and sexual violence that drove her to kill herself. It was alleged that he monitored her whereabouts, limited her access to finance and isolated her from her family.
Tarryn, 34, died in 2017. But the trial heard that she was diagnosed as probably suffering from PTSD after witnessing a violent car-jacking growing up in South Africa. And Mr Trybus, of Swindon, Wilts, said she had lied to get attention from health professionals.
The IT firm boss also told Winchester crown court during his eight-week trial he was out of the country on the days of several allegations. He was acquitted of manslaughter, rape and controlling and coercive behaviour.
In his first interview with the Daily Mail he said: “I absolutely never hurt her, and I never would have. I loved her, and the idea that I would deliberately harm her is very upsetting to me and completely contrary to who I am and to the relationship I knew.”
Jurors were shown a grisly catalogue of images documenting bruises and wounds on Tarryn’s face and body in numerous selfies taken from her phone after her death. Prosecutors said Mr Trybus carried out a “tsunami of abuse” including sexual violence before her death.
Mr Trybus was abroad working in Germany when he learned Tarryn had died. She had alleged in a note written just before she took her life that his abuse had driven her to suicide. But he was cleared of all charges by the jury which deliberated for 40 hours.
He said: “I started crying as they were reading them out. One or two jurors smiled at me. There was such a mix of emotions; relief of course, and I was upset that Tarryn had made the allegations, but I also try to understand. She was struggling with her mental health but it felt, in large part, a happy marriage and it is difficult now. I don’t want her memory tarnished. I don’t want her remembered for the wrong reasons.
“The grief at her death stays. It’s always there. It’s like a big black hole, but life grows around it. It isn’t something you get over. You cannot possibly celebrate when it’s been such an awful tragedy.” Tom Little KC, prosecuting, alleged the repeated abuse unmasked a “hidden side” to their marriage.
In the two years before her death, Tarryn made more than 30 reports of domestic abuse to professionals, the court heard. She claimed to her GP that Mr Trybus had hit her with a metal pole, wrapped a rope around her neck until she passed out, and kicked and punched her in the face and abdomen.
A psychiatric nurse testified that, months before her death, Tarryn said she saw only “two choices of a way out: either to leave her husband or die”. Mr Trybus said: “That was deeply painful to hear. The picture being presented of our relationship was not one I recognised and was not the truth of our marriage.
“I knew that Tarryn was struggling, dealing with mental health issues, but what I did not know was that she had been making allegations of domestic abuse against me. It meant there was a whole part of what was being said to professionals that I simply did not know about and therefore couldn’t respond to or address.”
After Tarryn’s death in 2017, Mr Trybus remarried Polish-born Bea, 39, who has a son, 15, and daughter, 12, from her first marriage. She said: “He’s the opposite of coercive and controlling. I’d have run a mile from a man like that because I’ve experienced it in previous relationships.” Speaking about the toll the case had taken on their lives, Bea added: “I think when it dawned on me Chris might go to prison…. It was just so scary. We had discussions about the ‘what ifs’, and I never wanted to imagine my life without him. We’d both be lying awake, worrying, at 3am.”
During Mr Trybus’ trial, graphic details of his sex life with Tarryn were forensically examined by jurors. Mr Trybus admitted they had used a “fluffy collar”, which the prosecution said had caused a specific injury to Tarryn’s neck during sex. Meanwhile a “rape tape”, an audio recording Tarryn made covertly of a sexual encounter between them in October 2017, was played several times to the jury.
But Katy Thorne, KC, acting for Mr Trybus, said while he had bought a bondage sex kit on Amazon, Tarryn had also bought sex toys on the internet, among them heavyduty handcuffs, and she had joked with her friends about “rough sex”. Thorne also referred to the popularity of the Fifty Shades Of Grey book series, which depicts a sadomasochistic relationship.
Speaking today, Mr Trybus said: “It was extremely uncomfortable and upsetting. I’m quite a private person, and having intimate details of our marriage, including our sex life, discussed publicly was very difficult. But I understood the court process required difficult and personal issues to be examined. I just tried to get through it as best I could.”
Mr Trybus provided evidence that he was not even in the country when Tarryn made some allegations to a doctor and her friends. She claimed he had beaten her and punched her in the face on November 13 2016 and hit her with a metal bar five days later. He was in Sweden from November 8 until November 23.
Mr Trybus now fears he could lose his home after being hit with a £250,000 legal bill, but says his freedom is the most important thing. He said: “I do wonder how long we can hang on in this house, and whether the stain on my name will follow me for ever. You just don’t know. But my freedom is the most important thing, and if we have to sell the house so be it.”
