A HUSBAND is said to have stabbed his autistic daughter to death and strangled his wife after she said she was leaving him, a court has heard.
Peter Nash, 47, who has chosen to represent himself in court, denies the murders of 43-year-old Jillu Nash and their daughter Louise.
He is accused of killing the pair at their home in Heath Estate, Great Waldingfield, Sudbury, Suffolk, in September last year.
David Josse KC, prosecuting, said that by early 2022 Mrs Nash had “entered into a relationship with a work colleague”, Mark Leamey, and “she planned on leaving her husband and setting up home”.
“The defendant and Mrs Nash had a difficult and unhappy marriage,” said Mr Josse.
“They married in 2009 and the stresses and strains of that relationship were undoubtedly compounded by Peter Nash losing his job by redundancy in 2020.”
He said that Nash was “largely responsible for the care of their autistic daughter Louise”, who was “non-verbal, only able to say a few words”.
Mr Josse said that Mrs Nash had recorded some conversations that she had with her husband, and that in one in August 2022 Nash called her “a schemer who caused chaos to gain attention”.
“When he suggested she had been cheating on him for some four months, she corrected him and told him it was eight months,” said Mr Josse.
He said that Mrs Nash and Mr Leamey were seen together on September 7.
Mr Josse said the prosecution allege that Nash murdered his wife and daughter either late on September 7 or early on September 8.
“The Crown say he killed Jillu by compression of her neck, and his 12-year-old daughter Louise by a single stab to the abdomen” he said.
Mr Josse said police went to their home on September 8 after Mrs Nash “failed to turn up for work and Louise didn’t arrive at school”.
“As the police broke into the home the smell of gas deterred them from going any further for safety reasons, so the fire service were called,” he said.
“The fire service were the first people to enter the property on September 8.”
He said Mrs Nash was found in the living room, while Louise was found on a bed covered with a sheet.
Mr Josse said the defendant was next to his daughter and had suffered “a number of superficial… cumulatively serious stab wounds and was still in possession of a knife”.
He said Nash “had to be disarmed by police with a Taser”.
The prosecutor said Mrs Nash had been “asphyxiated with the aid of a T-shirt stuffed in her mouth”.
He said Nash was later assessed by a psychiatric team, and “he told them he had been angry with his wife, confronted her with a picture of her with another man”.
Nash then killed his wife and daughter and “tried to kill himself”, Mr Josse said.
The trial, due to last up to six weeks, continues.
