Police failings left violent partner free to kill, court told

POLICE failings left an abusive man “free to kill” his partner after the death of a previous girlfriend and his history of violence against women were not properly investigated, a court heard.

The parents of Susan Nicholson, who was murdered in 2011 by Robert Trigg, believe police missed opportunities to save their daughter owing to “cumulative failings” over seven years.

Trigg suffocated Ms Nicholson, 52, at her home in West Sussex, five years after killing another partner, Caroline Devlin, 35, in 2006. Neither death was initially thought suspicious and it was claimed that Sussex Police failed to piece together a “pattern of violent, controlling, unstable behaviour” Trigg displayed towards at least four other women as far back as 2003.

Elizabeth and Peter Skelton, Ms Nicholson’s parents, have brought a judicial review against the senior coroner for West Sussex in an effort to bring alleged police shortcomings within the scope of a new inquest into her death.

In an unusual twist, Trigg – who was jailed for 25 years for Ms Nicholson’s murder and Ms Devlin’s manslaughter – was accused of trying to hijack the new inquest to “mount an impermissible collateral attack upon the soundness of his conviction”.

Heather Williams QC, representing Ms Nicholson’s parents, yesterday told the High Court that Sussex Police made 10 failings while investigating Ms Devlin’s death, including not interviewing Trigg under caution or treating as suspicious the odd position in which the victim was found – with her face into the duvet and towards the rear of the bed.

In the months before Ms Nicholson died, officers were called to her address on at least three occasions.

Ms Williams said Sussex Police “knew or ought to have known of Robert Trigg’s violence towards previous partners”, including a vicious assault caution in 2003. She added: “We have a sustained pattern of violent, controlling, unstable behaviour over at least a seven-year period involving at least four separate women, including at least three occasions with threats to kill.

“The claimants are particularly concerned that Robert Trigg was free to kill Susan when he had a history of serious violence and threats towards previous partners; and police had attended several reports of his violence towards Susan in the weeks before her murder.”

Trigg was finally reinvestigated when a pathologist – instructed by Ms Nicholson’s family – said his explanation that she had died accidentally as they slept together on a sofa was “very unlikely”.

Trigg is an interested party to the review and wants the coroner to “fully investigate” how Ms Nicholson died, in a move Ms Nicholson said was designed to “challenge” his conviction.