Kain Tailby guilty of murdering partner on their anniversary | UK News

Warning – this story contains distressing content

A man who repeatedly banged his girlfriend’s head on the floor on their one-year anniversary has been convicted of her murder.

Chrissie Everett-Hickson, 21, suffered brain damage when Kain Tailby attacked her in the early hours of 18 February 2024 and died in hospital five days later.

Tailby, 31, had already admitted her manslaughter but denied murdering her during a trial at Derby Crown Court.

However, jurors found him guilty of the more serious charge on Wednesday.

During the trial, prosecutor Mary Prior KC said the fatal attack took place at the couple’s home in Riddings in Derbyshire.

“He shouted at her and immediately used his hands around her neck to lift her head from the floor on several occasions, and hit her head back on to the floor with enough force that their downstairs neighbour heard five to six banging noises and left his flat to call the police,” said Mrs Prior.

“After the assault, Kain Tailby put Chrissie in the bath to remove the blood that had started leaking from her ear.

“He then left her in the bath, sat on the stairs and called for the police and ambulance services to attend.”

Ms Everett-Hickson was taken to hospital and examined in the accident and emergency department.

“The clinical impression was that she had a devastating brain injury,” said Mrs Prior.

As well as brain damage, she had a fractured skull and extensive bruising to her face, limbs and body.

She was placed on life support, Mrs Prior said, but deteriorated in the hospital.

“She remained unresponsive to stimuli. Her brain continued to swell, pushing the brain out of the skull cavity,” said Mrs Prior.

It was agreed on 22 February that life support should be withdrawn, following organ donation.

Ms Everett-Hickson died at 00:39 GMT on 23 February.

When interviewed by police, Tailby said he had been in a bad mood on the day of their anniversary due to a cat.

“We have two cats and one of them is a bit temperamental with me, like one minute she’s all right, next minute she absolutely hates me,” he told police.

“And she went through one of the hate phases and it aggravated me.”

He said they had planned to celebrate their anniversary by going to the cinema in Derby but got on the wrong bus.

“So I had a bit of a mood on [due to the cat], we got on the bus, what we thought would be Derby, but it didn’t,” he said.

“We got off at Ripley and that aggravated me some more, so I says ‘I’m not going to Derby now I’m going home’, picked some cans of beer up, gave her one, drank the rest on the walk home and err, we decided we’d go to pub instead.”

After going to the pub, they walked home to their first-floor flat in Greenhill Lane.

Within an hour of them getting home, their downstairs neighbour heard shouting and screaming, Mrs Prior told the court.

The argument went on for about 10 minutes before the neighbour heard five or six “boom noises”, Mrs Prior said, and then everything went quiet.

“Steven [the neighbour] then heard music playing and then gurgling noises,” Mrs Prior said.

“He heard Kain Tailby say ‘don’t do this to me! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!'”

The neighbour texted a friend saying he was “seriously concerned” for Ms Everett-Hickson, then went outside to call the emergency services.

However, an ambulance arrived before he could do so, as Tailby had phoned 999 himself, the court heard.

In the call, which was played to jurors, Tailby claimed his partner had “got a bit physical”, so he “got a bit physical back”.

“Things escalated from one thing to another and she got pushy and shovey. I retaliated back,” he said.

Police attended and Tailby was arrested.

When interviewed, he claimed his girlfriend had slapped him.

“How did you feel when she slapped you?” he was asked.

He replied: “Angry. Really angry.”

Tailby told police he shouted at her not to do it again, while pinning her to the floor with his hands around her throat.

He initially told police he had “banged her head once”.

However, his version of events changed in subsequent interviews the following day, after he was told about the five or six noises his neighbour heard, the court was told.

Tailby then agreed he had banged her head on the floor five or six times.

“He knew what he was doing, he had a clear recollection of it,” Mrs Prior told jurors.

“He heard the noise it made, he noticed that she was not moving. Her eyes were closed, she was groaning. He carried on until he saw the blood coming from her ear.

“What else, we say, in those circumstances, could he have intended to cause her other than at least really serious bodily harm?”

Det Con Jonathan Reeves, from Derbyshire Police, said: “What should have been a celebratory evening for a young couple turned into tragedy when Tailby, by his own admission, over-reacted enormously to what had been a minor dispute between the pair.

“He must have known that the force with which he assaulted Chrissie on that night could cause her serious injury or worse, yet he still chose to behave in this way for reasons only he knows.

“Chrissie had her whole life ahead of her, but it was so cruelly taken away by the mindless violence inflicted by Tailby.

Tailby will be sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Friday.

Additional reporting by Caroline Lowbridge