Friday brief: ‘If anything happens to me, please know it was him’
More coverage of the Northampton murder trial this morning and some other news from the week
By Sarah Ward
A Northampton mother had considered going into a refuge to try and escape her husband before her death, but was worried what he would do to her family, a murder trial heard this morning.
Kimberley Thompson, 43, died at her home in Pinewood Road, Northampton on August 9 last year. Her estranged husband Michael Thompson, 56, is on trial for her murder, rape and for perverting the course of justice by attempting to cover up her death as a suicide. He denies all charges.
This morning the murder trial being held at Nottingham Crown Court heard evidence from Kim’s friend Danielle Harrison and Kim’s new partner Nathan Syratt.
Mrs Harrison, who was giving evidence via a video link from her home in Perth, Australia, told the jury her friend, who she had known from secondary school, had changed during her relationship with Thompson. The pair were married in 2006 after dating for a number of years. Kim moved into a house with Thompson and two children he had from a previous relationship and looked after Thompsons’s ill mother who moved in with them.
Mrs Harrison said before she moved to Australia in 2015, Kim, had confided in her and another friend about physical assaults and a rape that Thompson had inflicted on her after she had an affair, and that there had been plans to help her get away from him.
She said:
“We begged her to report it. We wanted her to go to the police. She would say ‘There is no point’. Nothing will come of this. He will be let out and things will get even worse at home.’”
Asked by prosecutor Miranda Moore KC if she had offered to help her friend, she said she had, and there were plans for Kim to move into her home, but she then told her friend she could not take her in because of concerns about what Thompson would do. Kim agreed that Thompson would go to Mrs Harrison’s house to get her.
Ms Moore asked if the friends had a ‘plan b’ and Mrs Harrison said they had spoken quite a few times about a refuge and she believed her friend had contacted the domestic abuse Sunflower Centre in Northampton and ‘plans were underway’ but she did not go ‘because she believed to get her out of hiding he go for her mum or her sister.’
She said Kim’s next plan was to start putting money away.
She said her friend was often depressed and told her Thompson had said he would kill her.
Mrs Harrison told the court Kim had said to her:
“If anything happens to me. Please know it was him.”
Mrs Harrison said:
“She said she had regretted the affair because the punishments had become a lot worse.
“Sex had become a weapon and a way of punishment.”
Before she died Kim had separated from her husband - although they were still living together - and been planning to move into a home in the town she had bought which she had been renting out to help pay for her daughter’s college. She had also planned a trip with her new partner, who she had met at a basketball final he had been djing at.
Mr Syratt, who lives in Colchester, gave evidence from the witness stand. Messages between the pair and a voice note from Kim were played.
Throughout the messages Kim questioned herself and what kind of person she was and said Thompson was playing ‘twisted games’. The last message exchanged between the couple was just after midnight on August 9 in which they had been planning a stay at a Northampton hotel. The crown prosecution’s case is that Thompson killed his wife sometime just after midnight and between 3.30am. They say he then staged a fake suicide, planting alcohol and painkillers next to her bed.
Thomspon, 56, denies all the charges. The trial is expected to last for another four weeks.
Below are links to some earlier coverage of this murder trial. Our paying subscribers will have access to our full coverage of the trial
Northampton murder trial: ‘He had threatened to kill her so many times, it just became normal.’
Northampton murder trial” ‘I can’t wake my wife up’
Northampton mum murdered in home by husband who then tried to fake her suicide, court hears
Other news from the county
West Northants Council (WNC) will push ahead with its proposals to move black bin collections to every three weeks, after a fiery meeting that called the decision into question and allegations of “hypocrisy”.
At the start of May, the Reform UK cabinet agreed the “1, 2, 3+” system, which is already in place in the Daventry area, should be introduced to homes in Northampton and South Northants from spring 2027.
This will see food waste collections every week, fortnightly recycling collections, and general waste wheeled bins being picked up every three weeks. Households with communal bins and terraced properties that use black sacks will still have collections on a weekly basis.
Councillors gathered at a scrutiny meeting on Tuesday evening after opposition members submitted a bid to reverse the collection frequency changes, raising concerns that the system would bring increased fly-tipping and vermin in urban areas and that the public hadn’t been consulted properly.
Leading the call-in, the Conservative group leader, Cllr Daniel Lister, accused the administration of bypassing public consultation in its decision.
The officer’s report references a 2023 public consultation, which took place to inform the development of the resources and waste strategy. Feedback showed that over two-thirds (67 per cent) of people agreed that all households across WNC should have their waste collected in the same way, however almost two-thirds (65 per cent) said they were against changing collections to every three weeks.
It added that significant research on collection frequency has since been conducted, which supports the “1, 2, 3+” model and that the outcome “is unlikely to change” as a result of further consultation.
Cllr Lister told the committee meeting:
“The administration talks a great deal about listening to residents.
“A cabinet report that tells residents their views are unlikely to change the outcome, before their views have even been sought, is not a report that meets the standards this council sets for itself.
“Every community losing a fortnightly collection deserves proper consultation and a proper evidence base before that change is imposed on them. Residents in Northampton and South Northamptonshire have had neither.”
Northampton resident James Hill, who started a petition against the changes with more than 2,000 signatures, also raised concerns that waste being left in bins for weeks could leave foul odours and attract rats, creating a “genuine public health risk”.
Keith Holland-Delamere (Labour, Blackthorn and Rectory Farm) also expressed concern about the implementation of the new service and the potential for streets still on black sack collections to end up as a hotspot for extra waste from three-weekly black bin properties on collection days.
WNC’s assistant director for waste, Fiona Unett, told members that the main benefits of the collection changes would be ensuring “fairness” across all West Northants households, as well as increased recycling performance and service efficiencies.
Addressing the previous speakers, she listed a number of other urban local authorities across the UK, such as Blackpool, Rochdale and Wigan, that have the same three week collection schedule to “give some assurance” that it will also work in Northampton. She also told members that a consultation should not be seen as the same as asking residents to vote on proposals.
“It would’ve been disingenuous to consult and then appear not to listen to residents’ views,” she added.
Cabinet member for recycling and waste, Cllr Nigel Stansfield, said:
“It got brought in by a Conservative administration in Daventry, it’s obviously worked, it’s been successful.
“Wherever their property is, [residents] should get the same service. For me, that is harmonisation. Doing this, going to three-weekly, that’s what this is about.”
However, he was interrupted by Cllr Fiona Cole (Conservative, Hackleton and Roade) and called out for being “dismissive and insulting” in his response to councillors’ concerns after referring to Cllr Holland-Delamere as “one of the people in this room who speaks sense”.
Labour group leader Cllr Sally Keeble added:
“The point of these meetings is to really get under the skin of these decisions and sometimes that can involve some tough questioning.
“We want the information out of yourselves and I think it’s really not helpful, and it’s obviously caused some agitation, when it actually becomes a political to-and-fro, because actually this is about what’s going to work best.”
Cllr Lister said the council’s resources and waste strategy, which was approved in 2023, explicitly stated that significant changes to services should have further consultation. He made a proposal that the decision should be referred back to the cabinet to seek more clarity and to consult with the public.
This proposal failed, with one member voting in favour, four against and two abstentions. The two Conservative members on the panel were not permitted to vote due to a rule which states that any councillor who has signed the call-in cannot vote on the matter.
Ultimately, the committee agreed to take no further action.
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
A Northants Police officer who carried out an unauthorised pursuit of a scooter rider has been sacked without notice.
PC Cai Sciyver, who had previously served in the army and the Met Police, has been removed from the force following a three day hearing last week.
In December last year, while on night shift the officer chased and then hit an electric scooter rider who he suspected of delivering drugs. The response officer, who had been employed by Northants police since 2019, was not trained for pursuit.
The case against him included that he had made a false statement and said the scooter rider had swerved into his path. He was found to be in breach of the professional standards including honesty and discreditable behaviour.
In November he was given three penalty points and a fine for driving without due care and attention.
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with 22 sexual offences following a Northamptonshire Police investigation.
The Wellingborough boy, who cannot be named due to his age, has been charged with a number of offences including multiple counts of rape. The charges relate to incidents between the years 2022 and 2025 when ten girls were sexually assaulted.
The boy will appear at Wellingborough Youth Court on June 23.
The North unitary council has been ordered to pay a family compensation after failing to provide school transport to a student who has special educational needs and disability (SEND).
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) said the student, referred to as Mr Z in the report, missed out on his education and a range of specialist support he was entitled to because he was not supported to access his place of education.
He eventually decided he no longer wished to attend his college after waiting for council-arranged transport for over a year and becoming “frustrated” with the lack of support.
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) has said it is making changes to its home-to-school transport, which it anticipates will reduce the risk of similar issues repeating. It has accepted the LGSCO’s findings and extended its “sincerest apologies” to the family.
A report published by the local government watchdog said that in October 2024, a SEND Tribunal found that the student, Mr Z, should attend an educational setting and decided it would be a reasonable adjustment for the council to provide his transport, given his needs.
In February 2025, the council told his mother, referred to as Mrs X, that she needed to apply for transportation. She said it took 13 weeks for the application to be processed, and that she was informed of different reasons for the failure to provide transportation.
In response to a complaint about the lack of provision, NNC agreed to arrange taxi service transport for the start of the academic year in September 2025. However, Mrs X said the council failed to do this and her son decided he no longer wished to attend college at the end of the year.
The ombudsman report wrote that it found fault with the authority’s failure to arrange transport for the student, which directly resulted in Mr Z being unable to attend his educational setting.
It explained that this caused him “injustice” because he was not able to receive the education and the extra support, including Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Occupational Therapy and physiotherapy, that he was entitled to in his EHCP. The investigator also considered that the needs set out in his care plan were “high”.
It ordered the council to provide a written apology to the family for the “unnecessary and avoidable distress” and to pay them £5,800 for the failure to provide suitable provision from the winter term of 2024 through to the winter term of 2025.
The Ombudsman has also recently recommended improvements to NNC’s service on the setting up of provision and SALT provision following the issuing of an EHC Plan.
A North Northamptonshire Council spokesperson said:
“We accept the findings and recommendations made by the LGSCO and would like to extend our sincerest apologies to both the family and the child for the failings in the delivery of the child’s education during what must have been an extremely difficult time. We recognise that we have fallen short of the performance our families have a right to expect of us.
“We are continuing to work with the family, to ensure that the child receives education which best suits their needs.
“As a local authority, we are making long‑term, sustainable changes – particularly to home-to-school transport – which we anticipate will help to reduce the risk of similar issues arising again and will lead to improved experiences and outcomes for children, young people, and their families.
“Alongside system-wide improvements, we are committed to working with our partners – and parents – to ensure every child and young person with SEND receives the support they need to thrive.”
By Nadia Lincoln