Natalie Connolly: Partner was ‘not unduly upset’ by dead body
A wealthy businessman did not seem ‘unduly upset’ by the sight of his dead partner’s bloodied body lying in the hallway of their home, a paramedic told a murder trial.
Stephen Hill described John Broadhurst, said to be worth £15 million, as ‘upset and tired looking’ but also said he was ‘vague’ and struggled to answer basic questions.
The West Midlands ambulance staff member was first on the scene at Broadhurst’s detached home in Kinver where his partner Natalie Connolly’s naked body was discovered at the bottom of the stairs after a night of drink-and-drugs-fuelled ‘rough sex’, a jury heard.
Mr Hill said Broadhurst, aged 40, had clearly not been up for long and appeared to be suffering from a hangover when he answered the door.
The paramedic assessed that Ms Connolly had been dead for some time as rigor mortis had set in. She had bruising to her head, eyes, ears and arms and dried blood around her genital area.
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He said Broadhurst kept asking what had happened to her. “He didn’t seem unduly upset. He seemed concerned. I know if it was my partner I’d be very upset,” said Mr Hill.
The paramedic said Broadhurst seemed confused about his 26-year-old partner’s surname and did not know her date of birth.
Mr Hill thought his confusion ‘very odd’ until Broadhurst told him that he and Ms Connolly had been together for only two weeks.
The court had earlier been told the couple had been seeing each other for six months.
The medic said he left the house briefly and returned to find Broadhurst on the phone to his ‘wife’ – his former partner Charlotte Dummer.
The defendant handed him the phone and asked him to tell her what had happened.
In a statement Ms Dummer, to whom Broadhurst had been engaged, said she had found out about the affair with Ms Connolly when she was eight months pregnant.
Ms Dummer told police he had never been violent towards her during their seven-year relationship and she had been left ‘bewildered’ by his phone call to tell her that Ms Connolly had died.
Another statement by friend Damien Siviter described the defendant and Ms Connolly as ‘very touchy feely’ and acting like teenagers in love at a West Bromwich Albion they had attended hours before her death.
Broadhurst had talked about how good their sex life was and how she ‘liked to be beaten and choked’.
He also told his friend that he and Natalie would have to ‘calm down’ their sex lives on an upcoming trip to Dubai because her bruises would be seen in a bikini.
Broadhurst, of Blakeshall Farm, Wolverley, denies murder and causing grievous bodily harm on December 18, 2016.
The trial continues.
