A mother-of-three broke down in court as she described how she desperately tried to stop her husband and son from killing her lover after he was found hiding in a wardrobe.
Kerry Peckham cried at Norwich Crown Court as she told the jury how she had attempted to hold back her husband Wayne Peckham, 49, from attacking her lover Matthew Rodwell, 39.
She said her son Riley, 23, found Mr Rodwell hiding in a wardrobe upstairs at her home in Downham Market, Norfolk, on January 23, last year.
Mrs Peckham had moved in with father-of-two Mr Rodwell after ending her ‘turbulent’ relationship with husband Wayne, the father of her three children, who was ‘rough, volatile and controlling’ towards her.
She claims Mr Rodwell was viciously attacked and said during the attack the sound of the punches and kicks ‘changed from more of a thud to more of a splat’.
Mother-of-three Kerry Peckham (left) cried at Norwich Crown Court as she told the jury how she had attempted to stop her husband and son killing her lover Matthew Rodwell, 39 (right)
Matthew Rodwell, 39, is said to have been repeatedly kicked, stamped and punched and died from strangulation
The court heard that Kerry Peckham had split from husband Wayne (left) in Spring 2021. Her son Riley (right) is said to have found Mr Rodwell hiding in a wardrobe at her home
Police were called to the scene where they arrested Wayne Peckham and handcuffed Riley who then escaped
Mr Rodwell had called the police while he was hiding in the wardrobe and officers found the Serco refuse worker dead at the scene, with Mrs Peckham ‘distraught’.
The cause of death was strangulation.
Mrs Peckham said when the police arrived Wayne ‘jumped up and tried to run away’.
Wayne Peckham, of Manby Close, Hilgay, denies murder and actual bodily harm (ABH) against Mrs Peckham on January 23 last year.
The court heard that Kerry Peckham (left) had tried to prevent Wayne from entering the house
Kerry Peckham began a relationship with father-of-two Matthew Rodwell, a refuse worker for Serco
Mr Rodwell was pronounced dead at the house in Downham Market, Norfolk. The cause of death was strangulation
Riley Peckham, 23, has denied murder and a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Norwich Crown Court
Wayne also denied two counts of ABH and another of assault by beating in relation to an earlier incident in Downham Market on December 4, 2021.
Riley also denied ABH in relation to the same incident on December 4, 2021.
Giving evidence yesterday, Mrs Peckham said Wayne had been ‘goading’ Riley to ‘find’ Mr Rodwell and ‘let him have it’, to ‘kill the p***k’.
The mother said she let her son Riley in through an upstairs window after hearing him on the roof that evening.
She told the court she tried to get Riley to leave before he found her lover.
Mrs Peckham later ‘grabbed onto the bottom of Wayne’s legs’ so he ‘couldn’t fully get to the top of the stairs’ after hearing a struggle from upstairs between Mr Rodwell and Riley.
She added: ‘He just wanted to get up there… his face appeared angry.’
She said she heard a commotion upstairs when Wayne ‘barged past’, pushing her out the way.
She added: ‘Wayne was trying to get me off him so he could get to the top of the stairs.
‘I was holding onto him so tight.’
She told the court that during the struggle she fell to the bottom of the stairs.
After she got up the jury heard that she found the victim already at the bottom of the stairs with ‘Wayne leaning over him’.
She told the prosecution that Wayne began ‘attacking’ him at this point by ‘kicking, punching and stamping on him.’
‘He couldn’t even defend himself at that point,’ she added.
She said she was ‘screaming at Wayne to stop’ before she lay over Rodwell.
She told prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC that Wayne continued his attack and hit and kicked her as well.
She said: ‘I was screaming at him to stop and get off him. Wayne was staring and snarling, using every ounce of anger he could muster.’
She thought ‘someone might come to help me’ because she was ‘screaming for help’.
The trial continues.
