A man accused of murdering his ex-fiancée after she told him they wouldn’t meet anymore posted on Facebook about his ‘heartbreak’ at her ‘sudden and unexpected’ death, a court heard.
James Cartwright, 61, is also said to have raped Samantha Mickleburgh, 54, before strangling her at the five-star Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, on April 14 last year.
Jurors at Guildford Crown Court heard she had gone there because she ‘felt bad for him’ and ‘didn’t want him to feel lonely’ on his 60th birthday.
Today, it emerged Cartwright posted on Facebook the following morning: ‘I am so heartbroken and devastated at the very sudden and unexpected loss of my gorgeous, kind, caring, and loving partner Samantha during the night of my birthday at Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, after such a wonderful and happy evening.’
He said, ‘I simply do not have the words’ and referred to how his ‘extreme grief’ was shared by Ms Mickleburgh’s close family members.
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Cartwright wrote about how family, friends and colleagues, past and present, would all be ‘as shocked and sad as I am at her sudden passing’.
He wrote: ‘I miss you so much sweetheart and have no idea how I’m going to live without you. You have left such an enormous hole in all our lives.
‘Rest in peace my darling. I love you so very much and always will.’
Earlier this week jurors were told that Cartwright called 999 at about 8.30am on April 14 claiming he had discovered the lifeless body of Ms Mickleburgh lying next to him in bed.
‘That was a lie,’ Ms Oakley said.
‘He had most likely killed her in the early hours of April 14, 2024, with his own bare hands applying manual pressure around her neck, extinguishing her life.’
She added: ‘There were only two people in this room – and she couldn’t have and didn’t strangle herself.’
The court heard Ms Mickleburgh had ended her relationship with Cartwright in February 2024.
Following their break-up, Cartwright had continued to pursue Ms Mickleburgh, attending her address unexpectedly and uninvited, and ‘bombarding her’ with messages and calls, Ms Oakley said.
‘She had intended at some point to tell him that this was the last time they would see each other,’ the prosecutor added.
‘Is this what caused James Cartwright’s explosion of violence?
‘He had started to lose control of his relationship with Samantha because of his own controlling and coercive ways.’
Cartwright, of no fixed address, denies raping and murdering Ms Mickleburgh between April 12 and April 14 last year.
He also denies one count of controlling and coercive behaviour between May 1, 2022, and April 14, 2024.
The trial continues.
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