After she had affairs with three men... and then claimed armed robbers had murdered her
- Debt-ridden couple owed credit card firms £30,000
- Police suspected Garbutt was lying from the start
- Confused 999 call was first strand in web of deceit
In what would turn into a web of lies - described by a judge as 'pure humbug' - Robin Garbutt told an emergency operator that armed robbers had attacked his wife Diana.
But a jury at Teesside Crown Court rejected the 45-year-old's repeated story that a raider with a gun told him ‘don't do anything stupid, we've got your wife’.
Scroll down to listen to 999 call...
Guilty: Robin Garbutt bludgeoned his wife Diana to death after she was unfaithful. He was convicted after a jury spent nearly 13 hours deliberating
Affairs: Mrs Garbutt had relationships with (left to right) John Illingworth, Kevin Heapey and Craig Hall. She said her husband was 'just not interested in sex'
Garbutt, who had already served 60 customers before dialling 999 at 8.37am, had in fact battered Diana to death with an iron bar as she lay in bed up to six hours earlier.
He also told police that the robbers had stolen £10,000 from the shop in the village of Melsonby, North Yorkshire.
But it later emerged that the couple were heavily in debt, including a credit card bill of £30,000, and that Garbutt had known his wife had cheated on him with several men.
WIFE TRAWLED WEB AT NIGHT FOR AFFAIRS
Villagers thought Robin and Diana Garbutt were the epitome of a loving couple, but behind the closed doors of their post office and shop their marriage was a wreck.
By March 23 last year, the vivacious 40-year-old, pictured, was fed up with the postmistress lifestyle, fed up with her husband and was looking for a new relationship, having already got involved with at least three other men.
Garbutt was heavily in debt, had stolen thousands from the post office and knew he was about to be exposed when a relief postmaster took over while they holidayed in the U.S. The couple rarely had sex - a problem for Mrs Garbutt who had a stronger libido than her husband.
So while he went to bed early to be ready for a 4am start to open their busy but unprofitable shop, she stayed up late, looking on the internet for men to date and flirting on Facebook.
Two years before, Garbutt was told by his wife that she had a drunken kiss with a man on a sofa after a night out in York - an incident that in all probability went further than that.
And the husband of her cousin was forced to ring him to tell him he had kissed Mrs Garbutt after his wife found out and made him confess.
Mrs Garbutt wrote him an email in which she appeared to call a halt to their budding relationship, saying it was 'seedy' but offering him a future together if they ever shed their 'emotional baggage'.
She also swapped sex fantasies on Facebook with Melsonby resident Craig Hall, with whom she went on late-night bike rides while her husband slept.
Garbutt shook his head as he was convicted by the jury of eight men and four women by a majority of ten to two.
His sister collapsed in tears as the verdict was announced. Diana Garbutt's mother Agnes Gaylor also wept.
The panel had been deliberating for nearly 13 hours.
Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Garbutt to life in prison and told him he would serve a minimum of 20 years.
Garbutt, looking thin, did not look at his family and friends in the public gallery as he was led away.
The judge believed the murder was motivated by Garbutt's fear of being exposed for stealing from the Post Office.
It was significant that his wife had been looking at the business accounts on the night he killed her, though he did not want to speculate about what exactly happened that night.
Garbutt planned to kill his wife with a metal bar as she slept.
‘There was no struggle, she never awoke,’ the judge said.
‘He struck three savage blows, smashing her skull and causing her immediate death as clearly he intended.’
Garbutt hid the weapon across the road on a wall, then opened shop as normal.
‘He feigned cheerfulness as he served customers as he attempted to deceive them that all was well.’
The judge said Garbutt had told the same ‘ludicrous story from beginning to end’.
Garbutt hit his wife three times over the head with a metal bar in the living quarters above the Melsonby Village Shop and Post Office in North Yorkshire the early hours of March 23 last year.
He then opened the shop as normal and served around 60 customers before closing again.
He dialled 999 and claimed his wife had been attacked, crying hysterically.
When a paramedic told him rigor mortis had already set in, he challenged this, insisting: ‘She's still warm.'
He told police a raider had robbed him and when he ran upstairs his wife was motionless, face down on the bed.
'MY WIFE'S BEEN ATTACKED': HOW GARBUTT TRIED TO COVER HIS TRACKS, FROM THE MOMENT HE DIALLED 999
Robin Garbutt tried to cover his tracks from the moment he dialled 999.Knowing his wife Diana was dead, the first of hundreds of lies began with his call to the emergency operator. After telling her his address and phone number, he added in a high-pitched voice: "My wife's been attacked."
The operator asks: "Is the attacker still nearby?"
Garbutt, sounding distressed, replies: 'No, no, no, he's gone.'
He is asked if the attacker was armed and replies: 'The guy with me had a gun and he said to me, he said "Don't be stupid, we've got your wife".
'He's gone and I've come upstairs.'
The operator asks: 'Has your wife been shot?'
Garbutt replies: 'I don't think... I would have heard a gun. I don't know.'
They were due to go on holiday to the U.S., where his wife's father was from, and Garbutt is thought to have feared a relief postmaster would discover the money was missing.
Police also discovered his wife, 40, had become involved with three other men, having a drunken ‘intimate’ encounter on a sofa with one, flirting on Facebook with another and kissing a third - the husband of her cousin.
Mrs Garbutt, who the killer claimed had a higher sex drive than him, was also looking online for men to date.
The couple had discussed splitting and Garbutt faced a future with no assets as what they had was in his wife's name.
Grisly: Mrs Garbutt's body was found in the upstairs living quarters of the Village Shop and Post Office in Melsonby, North Yorkshire
Murder weapon: The iron bar used by Garbutt to bludgeon his wife to death
Loss-making: Inside of the post office run by Garbutt
A crucial piece of evidence came from a meal of fish and chips they had the night before she died.
An expert on digestion told the jury Mrs Garbutt stopped processing the meal around six to eight hours after she finished eating it - giving a likely time of death in the early hours rather than when Garbutt claimed the robber struck.
Mr Justice Openshaw said Garbutt's lies had been exposed as ‘pure humbug’.
He said the defendant had shown no remorse over his wife, adding: ‘He has always accompanied his lies with sanctimonious lies of his love for her.
‘By their verdict, the jury have exposed this as pure humbug.'
His story unravelled after officers delved into the secrets of his seemingly happy marriage.
Distraught: Diana Garbutt's mother Agnes Gaylor wept as the verdict was announced
They found the couple had £30,000 in credit card debts and despite their long hours were making little profit in the bustling shop at the heart of the community.
‘This was a brutal, planned, cold-blooded murder of his wife as she lay sleeping in bed.’
Outside court, the victim's mother Agnes Gaylor said: ‘I am not thinking about Robin now.
‘I'm not going to let Robin enter my head after today.’
In a statement read on her behalf, she said: ‘Diana meant the world to us and we are still struggling to come to terms with what happened to her on that awful day.
‘We loved her with all our hearts, our loss is unbearable.’
Detective Superintendent Lewis Raw, who led the inquiry for North Yorkshire Police, said: ‘It is satisfying that we have been able to secure justice for Diana Garbutt and her family in this most tragic and distressing of cases.
‘I hope the murder conviction of her husband Robin Garbutt will provide a measure of comfort and closure, allowing her family to start rebuilding their lives after a very traumatic year.
‘The murder of Diana - and the subsequent arrest and charge of Robin Garbutt - has also caused a great deal of upset and distress to the residents of Melsonby.
‘In particular, the original circumstances that she was killed during an armed robbery which turned out to be a bogus scenario made up by Garbutt to cover his tracks.
'I would again like to reiterate North Yorkshire Police's sincere thanks to local residents who have supported the police throughout the investigation.
‘As for Robin Garbutt, he has shown himself to be a calculating and deceptive individual who attempted an elaborate cover-up after he violently ended his wife's life as she lay asleep in bed.
‘His actions that morning not only killed Diana, they also devastated the lives of Diana's family and plunged a small, close-knit community into fear.
‘That he did not have the decency to admit his guilt from the outset and therefore spare Diana's family the pain of reliving the tragic events in full during a trial, demonstrates the type of selfish and deluded individual that Robin Garbutt really is.’
Tribute: Flowers were lined outside the guest house in Melsonby
Any clues? Police search for murder weapons in the nearby river
Xanthe Tait, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for North Yorkshire and Humberside, said: ‘Diana Garbutt's life was cut brutally and tragically short. Her family is left to forever mourn her loss.
‘She was violently bludgeoned to death by her husband as she lay sleeping. It was a callous crime motivated by the basest of human characteristics.
‘Robin Garbutt went to great lengths in creating a cover story involving a robber with a gun, bludgeoning his wife to death: a story which he maintained throughout the trial - lying about his finances, lying about his relationship with his wife and lying about the robbery - to conceal his appalling crimes.
‘We have worked closely with North Yorkshire Police to build a robust prosecution case and secure justice for Diana. Our thoughts are with her family and we hope that today's conviction will bring them some measure of comfort and peace.’
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