Northampton murder trial: Defence plays jury messages of victim declaring she ‘loves everything’ about the husband accused of her murder
Messages from Kim Thompson to her husband have been presented as the defence evidence
By Sarah Ward
A series of messages in which murder victim Kim Thompson told her husband she loved him, were played by the defence team to the jury yesterday.
Dozens of voice messages and texts were given as the key part of the evidence by Michael Thompson’s legal team, as the murder trial which has been held at Nottingham Crown Court since mid May comes towards its conclusion.
Thompson, 56, who decided not to give evidence, is accused of raping and killing his younger civil servant wife in August last year and then attempting to cover up his crimes by staging a fake suicide.
He denies all charges.
Yesterday defence lawyer Micalia Williams read out dozens of messages between the pair, who had been married since 2006 and had two children together. A number of long voice notes from Kim, 43, to her husband were also played in court.
No witnesses have been called by the defence.
Thompson, who is a former bouncer and bailiff, had filed for divorce from his wife in 2024, but the pair were still living together in the family home at the time of Kim’s death on August 9.
The messages put before the jury included a number in which an audibly upset Kim - who had changed her name to Bounds - told her husband she still loved him and took blame for the breakdown of their marriage.
In one message she told him:
“Everything about you I love. Even the things I hate, I love.”
In another she said:
“I was the route of your unhappiness and I have to deal with that.”
She told him:
“I hated myself for what I have caused and what I have done.” In another: “I am sorry for the person that I am and that I came into your life.”
During the trial, the jury has heard that both of the Thompson’s had extra marital affairs. Kim had told many of her friends and family that her husband, who had two children from an earlier relationship, was abusive to her and in 2012 she had sought help from a domestic abuse service. However she later retracted her statement and said it was untrue.
In police interviews after he was arrested for her murder, Thompson denied ever hitting or hurting his wife and said instead she had been physical towards him. He told detectives she was a pathological liar.
The prosecution and defence will shortly do their closing statements. The trial continues.
Previous coverage of the trial
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
‘If anything happens to me, please know it was him’
Northampton murder trial: Kim Thompson’s colleague tells jury accused husband strangled her
Murder accused threatened to tamper with estranged wife’s car brakes, court hears
Pathologist tells jury he believes Kimberley Thompson died by suffocation
Unhappy domestic life of Thompsons revealed in texts and messages