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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Patrick Hill

'Woman-hating bride killer almost murdered me too - I tried to warn his next wife'

The former partner of bride murderer Thomas Nutt has told of how he is an evil woman hater who nearly killed her too.

Kimberley Allcock bravely tried to warn the scrap merchant’s live-in lover Dawn Walker after Dawn contacted her on Facebook asking why she had taken a restraining order against him.

Kimberley, 41, explained about Nutt’s brutal rages and sent photos of her injuries from a savage beating.

Dawn, 52, told Kimberley that Nutt “scared the hell out of her” but tragically, she could not persuade her to leave him.

Nutt battered and strangled his bride just hours after their wedding, then stuffed her body in a suitcase.

Kimberley, 41, who bravely gave evidence about her own hellish life with Nutt at his murder trial, told the Sunday People : “The way he behaved with Dawn was the same as with me but one woman survived and one didn’t. I was lucky.

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Nutt, 52, killed Dawn Walker at their home last October (Yorkshire Live/MEN Media)
Nutt with his former partner Kimberley (Paul David Drabble)

“I told Dawn everything he had done to me and told her to request information about him from the police.

“The last message I sent to her was ‘Are you OK?’. She didn’t reply because he had blocked me from her account.”

She said of helping to jail him: “I could sense him grinning as I gave evidence on what he did to me. What he did to me he did to Dawn, and Dawn reached out to me when she was alive so I felt I had to help. I’m glad I helped her get justice.”

Nutt, 45, was found guilty of murder at Bradford Crown Court, West Yorks, on Wednesday and will be sentenced next Friday. He faces a life term.

The cut to Kimberley's scalp caused by Nutt (Paul David Drabble)
Kimberley suffered abuse by Nutt even when she was pregnant with his three children (Paul David Drabble)

He killed Dawn on their wedding night last October and left her body in a kitchen cupboard at home in Lightcliffe near Halifax, West Yorks, while he went alone to Skegness for a fake honeymoon, spending a few days in a caravan.

After returning, Nutt crammed the body in a suitcase and hid it in nearby bushes – but it was found shortly after by a neighbour.

Mum of six Kimberley, a community care worker, was horrified after discovering what had happened.

She had lived with Nutt for 10 years and has three children with him.

She was smitten after they met at a travelling fairground at Retford, Notts, in 2005, where he was a ride operator on the waltzers.

Within three weeks she had moved into his caravan with her two boys and was travelling around the North of England with the fair.

Nutt with the three children he had with Kimberley (Paul David Drabble)

She said: “It was a whirlwind romance and I thought he was lovely. The children thought they were on a constant holiday.”

But it didn’t take long for Nutt to show his true colours. Shortly afterwards, he spent 16 weeks in jail after deliberately driving into another woman’s car in what Kimberley now knows was road rage.

At the time he lied about why he was jailed, claiming it was for being uninsured. And when he was released he soon began directing his violent side at Kimberley.

In 2007, two days after she gave birth to their son, now 15, Nutt violently attacked her after arguing over what to call the child.

She said: “Thomas went into a rage and started punching me to the head and face, again and again. I thought he was going to kill me.”

Nutt killed Dawn days after they wed (Facebook)

Nutt then took her phone from her and locked her up so she could not call the police. She said: “He was violent and controlling. He gave me no money and I felt like I was in a prison. He was horrible. I couldn’t leave the house.”

Nutt repeatedly asked Kimberley to marry him but she refused. And when she was heavily pregnant with their second child, a daughter who is now aged 14, Nutt threw the contents of a mop bucket – including bleach – over her head.

They had a third child together, a girl now aged 13, but Kimberley says Nutt was not interested in his daughters, just obsessed about his son.

She said: “He hates women. He has a deep hatred of women.”

She convinced Nutt to move to a terrace house in Worksop, Notts, where the walls were thin and the neighbours could hear – but the abuse didn’t stop.

Kimberley suffered years of abuse at the hand of Nutt (Paul David Drabble)

Speaking about his final attack in February 2015, she said: “I went to bed early with a headache. I was woken up by him throwing tablets at me. He dragged me out of the bed and started to strangle me. I couldn’t breath, he was pressing hard on my windpipe. I managed to struggle free and run for my life.’

Nutt grabbed her throat and punched her in the head eight or nine times. She said: “He started punching me in the head in front of our five-year-old daughter. She screamed and he stopped. If she’d not screamed, I’d be dead now.”

Kimberley was bleeding heavily and her blood had soaked her pyjamas.

Nutt’s “Dad” ring on his finger had ripped a gash in her scalp and he callously stripped her and bagged up the evidence to take it away and destroy it.

In desperation, Kimberley wrote “Help” on Facebook and a neighbour heard the screaming and called police.

During the trial for the attack, Nutt torched Kimberley’s Honda Civic, which set fire to the garage attached to the house where their three kids were asleep.

After he was found guilty of assault, Kimberley was moved to a safe house and granted a non-molestation order banning him from seeing her or his kids.

Menacingly, he still managed to send three smashed Easter eggs with the message: “Did the kids enjoy Easter?”

Kimberley said: “I’ve had restraining order after restraining order just to keep us safe from him. He’s a psychopath.”

In July 2020 Dawn, a gran who had three daughters, contacted Kimberley about the restraining order and she explained what had happened. Dawn said she couldn’t understand why he was so nasty to her but Kimberley advised her to be careful.

Then, in August 2020, Dawn said Nutt had nearly killed her. He had bruised her face and tried to suffocate her but panicked when he saw all the blood. He was arrested and Dawn told Kimberley that she had dropped the charges.

Shortly afterwards, Nutt blocked Kimberley from Dawn’s Facebook account.

Despite everything she had been through herself, Kimberley found the strength to stand up in court and face Nutt in his murder trial.

Nutt, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claimed he lost his temper after Dawn told him that she wanted a divorce hours after their wedding.

But Kimberley told the court he was a Jekyll and Hyde character who could be very loving and pleasant – but would go mad when he lost his temper.

Kimberley has now built up a close relationship with Dawn’s family. She said: “I have a close bond with Dawn’s family. I just wish she was there with me in court. I’d have supported her through a trial.”

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