A man stabbed his 12-year-old daughter and suffocated his wife after discovering she was cheating on him and planning to get out of their marriage, a court heard today.
Peter Nash reportedly snapped after finding out that Jillu, his wife of 13 years, was having an affair with a colleague.
Jurors were told he put a T-shirt in her mouth and inflicted a single, fatal knife wound to the abdomen of his autistic daughter Louise.
When police burst into the home after the alarm went off, they found 46-year-old Nash stabbing himself as he lay next to his daughter’s body, it is alleged.
Officers allegedly found a letter to his mother in which he confessed to the double murder and wrote that he had “collected money for the offense against me.”
Peter Nash has been charged with the murder of his wife and 12-year-old daughter who were found dead at their home in Suffolk.
Nash, representing himself in court, denies killing them between September 7 and 9 last year at the family home in Great Waldingfield, near Sudbury in Suffolk.
Prosecutor David Josse KC described the case as “tragic and horrific” and told jurors, “Scientific and other evidence suggests that no third party was involved.”
Police were alerted after Ms Nash failed to show up for work as a shop assistant and Louise also failed to attend school, the court heard.
Louise Nash, 12, who was found dead with her mother Jillu at their home in Great Waldingfield, Suffolk
Officers smelled gas as they broke in and called firefighters, who discovered the body of Ms Nash, 43, covered by a duvet on the living room floor.
Louise was undressed in a bedroom and was also under a sheet.
“It is significant and important that next to Louise on the bed lay the defendant, Peter Nash,” Mr. Josse said.
“He had suffered a number of superficially minor but cumulatively serious stab wounds and was still in possession of the knife. He had to be disarmed by the police using a taser.’
Nash and his wife married in 2009, but had a “difficult and unhappy marriage,” Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Mr Josse said: ‘The stress and strains of that relationship were undoubtedly exacerbated by Mr Nash losing his job through layoff in 2020.
“Plus, he was largely responsible for caring for their autistic daughter.”
Louise was described as virtually non-verbal, save for a handful of words.
Ms Nash began the affair with Mark Leamey in early 2022, the court was told, planning to leave her husband to move in with him.
She would “secretly” record conversations with the defendant that showed the “irreparable break in their relationship.”
Police at the bungalow of Jillu Nash and her daughter Louise, 12, in Great Waldingfield, Suffolk, after their bodies were found inside
An August 27 recording revealed that by then Nash knew she was “cheating on him” and he described her as an “intrigue who caused mayhem.”
He complained that she “drained him and put him to sleep” during an interview the next day, during which she admitted to being unfaithful for the past eight months.
Checks on the family computer found three TikTok videos believed to have been viewed after Ms Nash and Louise died.
One of them had a message about ‘a broken man… who is very dangerous’. Another asked, “Tell me why, when things go rough in a relationship, women are told to leave and men are told to work things out?”
Officers also allegedly found Nash’s letter to his mother, telling her not to feel “bad and angry,” adding, “I have collected the trespass against me and I have left my property.”
The defendant declined to comment to police during interviews, but admitted the crimes to a hospital psychiatric team, jurors heard.
“He told them he had been angry with his wife. He confronted her with a photo he found of her with another man and said he killed his wife and tried to commit suicide,” Mr Josse said.
Judge Mr Justice Murray informed the jury that the defendant had a right to represent himself in court, which “might cause him some difficulties”.
He added: ‘But since he is the defendant, he does not have to prove his innocence. The burden of proof is on the prosecution throughout the trial. The prosecutor must assure you of his guilt.’
The case continues.
