The late Jonathan Creswell was a “domestic abuser, manipulator, dissembler and a danger to the women unfortunate enough to cross his path”, a court has heard.
Barristers told the Crown Court in Derry that Creswell was “violent and coercially controlling and sexually abusive towards females” and had “almost unfettered control ... over the lives of so many young women”.
The court also heard further details of the attack by Creswell on murdered showjumper Katie Simpson and his violence towards others during the case of three women accused of withholding information following the 21-year-old’s death.
Among separate attacks mentioned in court on Friday were an incident in which Creswell pushed a woman’s head against a car window and slapped her face. He also dragged a woman across a stable yard by the hair.
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Ms Simpson died in Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry on August 9th, 2020, six days after she was attacked in the house in Gortnessy Meadows in Lettershandoney, near Derry, where she had been living with her sister, Creswell’s partner.
The trial of Jonathan James Creswell (36), from Greysteel, Co Derry, for the rape and murder of Ms Simpson ended abruptly last month after he was found dead at his home. His three co-accused – Hayley Robb (30), of Weavers Meadow, Banbridge; Jill Robinson (42), from Blackfort Road in Omagh, and Rose De Montmorency-Wright (23), from Craigantlet Road in Newtownards, previously pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on June 14th.
Robb and De Montmorency-Wright admitted perverting the course of justice by withholding information about Ms Simpson, while Robb also admitting cleaning blood at Creswell’s home, and Robb and Robinson admitted washing clothes belonging to him on August 3rd, 2020.
Prosecution barrister Sam Magee KC said they were “complicit in a conspiracy of silence” which misled police and hampered the investigation.
In court on Friday, Mr Magee said it was the prosecution’s case that Creswell raped Ms Simpson then “strangled and killed” her and then “created a fiction” about finding her hanging in the stairwell of their home to “cover up” what he had done.
He said it was accepted by the Crown that none of Creswell’s co-accused believed they were covering up a murder. They believed Creswell’s story that she had taken her own life and instead thought they were concealing a separate assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Regarding Robb, the prosecution barrister said Creswell was on the phone to her when he pretended to discover Ms Simpson’s body. She then came to the house and cleaned up blood, helped him take a cold shower and drove him to the hospital before taking Creswell’s clothes and washing them along with Robinson.
He said Robb eventually admitted to police that Creswell told her he gave Ms Simpson “a hiding” the night before her murder and was afraid police would consider him a suspect if they found out. He said Creswell had been controlling her since she was 18 and “she was and remained afraid of Creswell as he had hit her two or three times previously” and she had also seen him assault other women.
Robb and Robinson had been in relationships with Creswell and Mr Magee KC described how Creswell went with them to a lay-by near the Foyle Bridge afterpson was taken to hospital and said “yous think I did it” and that he would say she had been trampled by a horse to explain her injuries.
He told De Montmorency-Wright he “hit Katie with the end of the stick around her ankles” and was worried people would think he killed her.
Defence barristers for the three women said they had been controlled by Creswell and were genuinely regretful and remorseful for their actions.
Robb’s solicitor said she was a victim of Creswell’s “controlling and violent behaviour” and she had made formal complaints of assault against him. He said the prosecution accepted she was “fearful” of him and this “contributed to her unwillingness to comply” with the investigation.
The solicitor for Robinson said police had information she had been “subjected to violent conduct at the hands of Creswell” and he assaulted her “numerous times” in a stable yard but she denied this in police interview.
This “misguided loyalty” demonstrated the “extent of the control Creswell continued to exercise over her ... [that she] denied what police knew to be true,” he said.
The solicitor for De Montmorency-Wright said his client had demonstrated “false loyalty, fake loyalty, misconceived loyalty against a background of control” and would not have withheld information about Creswell “were there not an element of control hanging over her”.
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