Ex-chef ‘killed 2 girlfriends in their sleep 5 years apart’
A “JEKYLL and Hyde” chef killed two girlfriends in their sleep five years apart but their deaths were not at first seen as suspicious, a court heard yesterday.
Robert Trigg, 52, denies the manslaughter of Caroline Devlin and the murder of Susan Nicholson.
Trigg claimed mother-of-four Ms Devlin, 35, died after a “rough” lovemaking session at their home in 2006, the court was told.
He also told police he accidentally crushed Ms Nicholson, 52, to death when he rolled on top of her while they were sleeping on a sofa in 2011.
Pathologists at first concluded Ms Devlin died of natural causes and Ms Nicholson’s death was an accident. But an expert called in to re-examine the Robert Trigg, 52, outside Lewes Crown Court. The chef is accused of killing two girlfriends in their sleep. He denies the charges deaths said the first victim died from a blow to the head and the second was suffocated, Lewes Crown Court heard.
Trigg, said to be a heavy drinker with a history of violence against women, was “possessive, controlling and jealous”, jurors were told.
Duncan Atkinson, prosecuting, said Trigg’s relationship with both women was “marked by violence”.
Both apparently died in their sleep at the homes they shared with Trigg in Worthing, West Sussex.
On both occasions, he failed to alert the emergency services himself, asking others to do it instead, the court heard. Trigg allegedly let Ms Devlin’s eldest son find her body when he went to ask her what she wanted for Mother’s Day breakfast.
Two-and-a-half years before Ms Devlin died, Trigg was cautioned for attacking his then-girlfriend Susan Holland. He reportedly rang police and told them: “I’m going to kill her. You need to arrest me.”
Ms Holland recalled: “When he was nice, he was very nice, but when he was bad, he was horrid.”
Last year, he admitted violent behaviour towards another girlfriend, Caroline O’Toole.
She said: “When he drinks he is a completely different person, he is like Jekyll and Hyde.”
The trial continues.