Partner describes messages sent on day man disappears

The partner of a man who was allegedly killed in a "cold-blooded execution" by her former lover has described messages sent on the day he disappeared, a court heard.

Michael Bretton, 41, from Dorset, is accused of murdering Craig Hurcombe from Devizes, Wiltshire, on 1 January and one count of stalking involving fear of violence against a woman. He denies all charges.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court heard that Kate Saunders, 40, had been in a relationship with both men at different times.

After Hurcombe disappeared on New Year's Day, Saunders received messages from him urging her "not to be so hard" on Bretton and telling her to go back to Bretton, the court was told.

The court heard on Tuesday that the prosecution alleges that Hurcombe was killed in a "cold-blooded execution" with a samurai sword on New Year's Day in Gurney Slade, Somerset.

Lorry driver Hurcombe, 39, had been in a relationship with Saunders before Bretton, but that relationship ended in 2023.

Saunders and Bretton met through an online dating website two years later and had a casual relationship.

The jury heard Bretton wanted to formalise this to "boyfriend and girlfriend" but Saunders turned this down and ended contact, before rekindling her relationship with Hurcombe.

It is alleged Bretton then began stalking Saunders and Hurcombe, even fitting trackers to their cars.

In recorded police interview, Saunders said she had last seen Hurcombe on New Year's Day as he was preparing to go to work.

No-one saw him after that day and his mother raised the alarm after his boss contacted her to say he had not been in work.

Saunders told police: "That's when I knew it was something because that was very out of character for Craig not to work.

"Irrespective of what was happening, he would always go to work."

She said they had met up on New Year's Eve and had a "huge argument" over Bretton.

The court heard Hurcombe had gone to work at Blanchard's yard in Gurney Slade on the evening of January 1.

CCTV footage from the yard showed him waving at the camera at 18:26 GMT.

He is believed to have been killed a short time later.

Saunders told police, shortly after she last saw Hurcombe, she received a lot of messages from him.

"He said it wasn't going to work, and I shouldn't be so hard on [Mike], because he wanted to get something off his chest to make a fresh start, before we could [go] any further, he wanted to make the air clear, new year, new me.

"That Mike wasn't the one stalking me, it was him, and that over six months ago he had been following me.

"He said that Mike saw him, and that I should go back to Mike. I asked him why he did that, and I don't know what he exactly said," she told police.

Hurcombe was reported missing by his mother on 10 January. His body was found in a shallow grave in woodland at his work site on 14 January, the jury was told.

The trial continues.

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