Barrister says ‘dead woman was put on trial’ after husband cleared of manslaughter

A barrister has suggested that a “dead woman was put on trial” in the case of Christopher Trybus, who was cleared of manslaughter by a jury. Charlotte Proudman’s comments came after Trybus was found not guilty by a jury of eight women and four men, who deliberated for more than 40 hours. He was acquitted of all charges: manslaughter, coercive and controlling behaviour and two counts of rape. The case had been brought after his wife, Tarryn Baird, 34, took her own life in 2017. Prior to her death, she made allegations that Trybus had been abusive to her. Trybus’s defence argued that Baird had made false allegations because she was “bored and lonely”, and because she had been “desperately seeking help” for her mental health issues, “and feeling she wasn’t receiving it and she may have become addicted to the attention that her allegations brought”. Trybus, 44, denied all of the charges and said he had been unaware of his wife’s allegations before her death. He told the court: “I feel bad she was in such a place that she was saying these things – what was going through her mind?” He said that the day Baird had died was “the worst day of my life, just absolutely terrible, I don’t know how else to describe it”. Baird had lived with PTSD from witnessing violent incidents in South Africa where the couple had lived before they moved to the UK, and had taken several prescription drug overdoses in the months leading up to her death. …