Chef who killed two girlfriends finally brought to justice thanks to victim’s family
6-year battle to prove police wrong
A THUG has been found guilty of killing two girlfriends five years apart following a long campaign for justice by the family of his second victim.
Robert Trigg, 52, killed Scot Caroline Devlin, 35, in 2006 but her death was initially said to be from natural causes – leaving him free to suffocate Susan Nicholson in 2011.
Her death was then also said to be not suspicious, after Trigg claimed he inadvertently rolled on to her in his sleep while they were on a sofa.
But Miss Nicholson’s family did not believe his account and launched a campaign to bring him to justice, hiring their own pathologist to challenge an inquest’s findings. Trigg was eventually charged in November and was yesterday found guilty of the manslaughter of Miss Devlin, a mother of four from Auchinleck, Ayrshire, and the murder of 52-year-old former banking executive Miss Nicholson.
The jury at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex were told the unemployed chef was a violent and abusive man who would turn on women when he was drunk.
He killed Miss Devlin – whose mother Jean still lives in Auchinleck, though her father Bernard died in 2002 – with a blow to the back of the head. He callously left her children to find her body on Mother’s Day – just as they prepared to cook her breakfast in bed as a treat.
Despite 15-stone Trigg’s conviction for assaulting a previous girlfriend, police failed to bring him to justice after an inquest found that Miss Devlin had died of an aneurysm.
Five years later, he murdered Miss Nicholson – who weighed only 8st – either by pushing her face into a cushion, or holding her mouth and nose shut with his hand.
He claimed it was a terrible accident but then strolled out to buy cigarettes before calling an ambulance.
He had been cautioned for assaulting her a month earlier but detectives accepted the verdict of West Sussex coroner Michael Kendall that she died accidentally.
Police only reopened their investigations into Trigg after Miss Nicholson’s parents commissioned a fresh report on her death by forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary in March 2015. He rejected the tale spun by Trigg, and accepted by police and an inquest, saying: ‘It is very unlikely that someone asleep on a sofa with another could cause death... by simply rolling on to them.’
Dr Cary also suggested Miss Devlin had died not of natural causes but from a violent blow to the back of her head.
Trigg, who declined to give evidence in his defence, blew out his cheeks as the guilty verdicts were announced. He had denied both charges. His victims’ families burst into tears. As Trigg was taken away to await sentence tomorrow, Miss Nicholson’s parents Peter and Elizabeth Skelton criticised the police for failing to investigate him properly.
Mr Skelton, 82, said the past six years had been an ordeal, adding that the police should never have accepted the ‘accident on the sofa’ claim in the first place. He said: ‘They should have done more. It wasn’t up to standard, their first investigation.
‘We had to get a barrister and pathologist to back up our case because they would not listen to us. We’re just pleased it’s all over.’
Miss Devlin’s youngest son, Brandyn McKenna, said: ‘Finally we have got justice after 11 years. Finally as a family we can put some closure to this.’
Detective Superintendent Tanya Jones, of Sussex Police, said: ‘I am confident we have done everything we can to deliver justice for both women and their families. We are sorry we had not presented all the facts to the Crown Prosecution Service previously, but have now thoroughly investigated both cases.’