Northampton murder trial: ‘He had threatened to kill her so many times, it just became normal.’
By Sarah Ward Kim Bounds died last August. Her friends gave evidence today in the murder trial in which her husband Michael is accused of killing her. Instagram credit.A close friend of Northampton woman Kim Thompson told her murder trial today that her estranged husband had threatened to kill her so many times that ‘it just became normal’.In an emotional day at Nottingham Crown Court evidence from Kim’s longtime friend Annette Collins and her sister Dionne Bounds, painted the picture of a brutal marriage in which the mother of two, 43, was frightened of leaving her husband, Michael, 56, because she was terrified he would hurt her or her family.Kim, who was using her maiden name Bounds, died at the family home in Pinewood Road, Northampton on Saturday, August 9 last year.Her husband has been charged with raping and killing her before attempting to pervert the course of justice by staging a fake suicide. He denies all charges.The trial at Nottingham Crown Court is in its second week.The court heard that after meeting Thompson, Kim had changed from being a ‘bubbly, happy, adventurous’ young woman to a skeletal person who was ‘always on edge’ in her husband’s presence.The jury was told she had met former bouncer Thompson in 2001 when she was 19 and married him five years later. They were in the final stages of a divorce at the time of her death and she was planning a new life, although they were still living together.She had saved for years to buy a new home in Northampton and was planning to move in the coming weeks. The court also heard that two days after she died, she had been due to go away for a planned short break with a new partner.Michael Thompson denies killing his wife. Instagram credit.In the second week of the trial, Kim’s childhood friend Annette Collins said when the couple first met her friend was happy.From the witness stand she said: “She was quite smitten. She was excited because he was quite generous. They liked designer stuff and he was generous with gifts. He was taking her to New York and she seemed quite happy, but that swiftly declined.”She said on her own hen weekend Kim appeared to have doubts.She told the jury: “I think she said something along the lines of ‘if it does not work out I could just divorce him.’“So there were some doubts in her mind, but it was all booked and paid for. She did love him, but I think she was just going along with it and hoping for the best.”
