Three sordid affairs of the murdered postmistress

Husband accused of killing her 'had lost interest in sex'

By Chris Brooke
She enjoyed Facebook 'sex banter' with male friend

• Husband denies killing her above the village shop

Murdered: Diana Garbutt was killed last March after she confessed to having an extra-marital dalliance with another man
A village postmistress allegedly murdered by her husband in a faked armed robbery had three relationships with men in three months, a court heard yesterday.
Diana Garbutt, 40, had a drunken one night stand with a stranger, helped break up her cousin’s marriage by having a ‘special’ relationship with her husband and had sexually explicit chats on Facebook with a villager she went on long bike rides with.
Robin Garbutt, 45, who has been accused of battering his wife to death as she slept, was ‘just not interested in sex,’ Teesside Crown Court was told.
Instead of focusing on his struggling marriage, he devoted his efforts to running the shop and post office in Melsonby, North Yorkshire.
With their relationship in trouble Mrs Garbutt turned to other men for affection, the jury was told.
In December 2008 the couple visited a friend in York for a night out and stayed at the house he shared with two male tenants.
One of the men, John Illingworth, told how he returned to the house after an evening drinking and had more drinks with the Garbutts, who came back at a similar time with their friend.
Eventually everyone had gone to bed except Mr Illingworth and Mrs Garbutt. Asked what happened between them, he said: ’We were intimate on the settee.’
Affairs: Diana Garbutt had relationships with (l to r) John Illingworth, Kevin Heapey and Craig Hall. She said her husband was 'just not interested in sex'
He said they had ‘both had a lot to drink’ and he wasn’t certain how far they went.
Asked if they had sex, he replied:’It was very cloudy. I assumed we probably did.’
A day later she spoke to Mr Illingworth on the phone because she had left a pair of shoes behind and said she had ‘told’ her husband about what happened between them.

All smiles: Diana Garbutt with husband Robin, who is accused of murdering her after she told him about a liaison

Grisly: Diana Garbutt's body was found in the upstairs living quarters of the Village Shop and Post Office in Melonsby, North Yorkshire
The following month Mrs Garbutt began spending a lot of time with local resident Craig Hall, who was in the process of getting a divorce.
They went on bike rides together in the countryside and would ‘chat’ on Facebook late into the night.

Charged: Robin Garbutt arrives at Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough
Mr Hall said Mrs Garbutt admitted she was ‘going through a bit of a rough patch’ in her marriage. She told him ‘Robin seemed to be more shop than relationship.’
He said they had discussed the possibility of splitting up. Mr Garbutt offered to pay the rent on a house in the village where Mrs Garbutt could live alone.
Asking what the problem was in the Garbutts’ marriage, Mr Hall said:’The sex. Robin just was not interested.’
He admitted they would have conversations about sex over the internet and he would say things to her like ‘alright loser, did you get it last night?’ Mr Hall described their computer chats as ‘cheeky banter’ and denied trying to have an affair with her.
Mrs Garbutt was also becoming increasingly close with Kevin Heapey, the husband of her cousin Angela. Both couples attended a family 40th birthday celebration in North Wales in March 2009.
Several of them had gone out drinking and Mr Heapey and Mrs Garbutt were the last ones out. He said they walked home together after 3.30am. ‘On the way home we had a kiss,’ he said.
Mr Heapey said his wife was waiting for him and they had a row in the kitchen and the following day he admitted kissing Mrs Garbutt.
Mr Heapey said his wife made him phone Mr Garbutt to apologise and explain what had happened. Mr Garbutt appeared ‘confused’ and told him: 'Let’s leave it at that.’
Mr Heapey said he had no further contact with Mrs Garbutt but he and his wife did eventually separate.

Tribute: Flowers lined the streets of the Yorkshire village following Mrs Garbutt's death

Clues: Police search a nearby river in their hunt for the murder weapon
The court heard Mrs Garbutt wrote Mr Heapey a letter. In it she told him:’I thought that your marriage was doomed and mine too.’ Adding: ’What we had was special.’
‘I feel like I have been living in a fantasy world that I have created and totally indulged in.’
She told him they should be ‘just friends’ and ‘anything sexual should be off limits.’
And she told Mr Heapey if his marriage broke up ‘I am sure my feelings are going nowhere and we can maybe start over without the emotional baggage.’
Garbutt denies murdering his wife in March 2010. The court has heard he was living beyond his means and had built up £30,000 in credit card debts.
Garbutt is alleged to have bludgeoned his wife with an iron bar and blamed an armed robber he claimed escaped with around £16,000 from the post office safe.
No witnesses saw anyone suspicious leave the shop at a busy time of day and the prosecution claim the robbery never happened.

On guard: A policeman keeps watch outside the Village Shop and Post Office in Melsonby where Mrs Garbutt was killed