"If anything happens to me, it will be him" - Marion Price's alleged words weeks before her murder

A court has heard testimony from witnesses who heard a murder victim tell them that if anything were to happen to her, she believed her former husband would be responsible.

A jury sitting at Northampton Crown Court heard allegations that Earls Barton murder victim Marion Price told members of her family that if she were to be harmed after her financial settlement was signed and sealed, then they should look to her ex-husband Michael Reader.

Reader, 70, and his friend Stephen Welch, of Addlecroft Close, Northampton, are standing trial for the murder of grandmother Marion Price at Northampton Crown Court.

Day five of the six-week trial heard from witnesses for the prosecution, who painted a picture of a woman who had been the victim of a 'manipulative, controlling' man.

Kimberley Little, who is married to Marion's brother Tom Little, said Marion began popping round to their house regularly after she split with Reader in 2017.

Marion and Reader agreed their financial settlement three weeks before Marion was killed in December 2019, and Reader had been due to pay her £10,000 on December 9, which was coincidentally the last day Mrs Little ever saw her sister-in-law.

Asked by prosecution barrister Mary Loram QC if Marion had expressed her views on the settlement, Mrs Little said: "She was concerned that once she'd paid him the £10,000, if anything happened to her it would be him. She said it to my husband Tom but I've no reason to disbelieve him."

The court heard Marion had been depressed following an alleged 2017 attack on her by Reader, during which she said he hit her over the head with a mallet after she refused to give him any more money on top of the thousands she was said to have already given him. He stood trial for that incident in 2018, but was found not guilty by a jury.

Kimberley Little also described the heartbreaking night of December 15, 2019, when her husband Tom was called to his sister Marion's House in Packwood Crescent, Earls Barton after she had been shot once in the head.

Mrs Little went to the scene with him to find Marion's son-in-law Scott Brown already there, performing CPR.

"He looked tired, so my husband Tom took over. He was shouting 'Marion, come on,' while giving her CPR.

"I walked closer to support my husband. I remember screaming 'Marion' myself and I took her in the ambulance and a couple of minutes later the ambulance people came out and told us she'd gone."

Cross-examining Mrs Little, barrister for Reader William Harbage QC, said that she had only met Reader once, and that all her knowledge of him had come through Marion and other members of the family.

"Yes," replied Mrs Little.

Giving evidence, Tom Little said that he and his big sister and their other siblings had grown up in Liverpool, but one-by-one almost the whole family had moved to Northamptonshire.

The pair had a falling-out and Mr Little hadn't attended Marion's 2012 wedding to Reader but after they split, the court heard that their relationship began to improve.

"What, can you remember, did she say about Mr Reader?" asked Ms Loram QC.

"He was manipulative and controlling," said Mr Little, reading from his statement to police.

Mr Little told the court that Marion had told him Reader was keeping £100,000 in a safe and that she was worried about that much cash being in the house.

He was asked about what Marion had told him after she and Reader had split up and the pair had eventually come to a financial settlement.

"There was relief she'd left him. She felt threatened. She felt scared.

"She was just absolutely terrified. She wouldn't go out after dark."

Asked about Marion's reaction to the alleged 2017 hammer attack, Mr Little said she had transferred £50,000 to Reader immediately after the incident.

"He said she owed him it," he said. "If she didn't pay him he'd come back and he'd beat her again."

Mr Little continued: "She was destroyed. It affected her ability to function daily.

"She ended up on anti-depressants. She went back to her job working in schools.. she couldn't concentrate. She was forgetting things. She just became a completely different person and withdrawn."

Tom Little said he had last seen his sister on the day that Reader had been due to pay her £10,000 as part of their divorce settlement - December 9, 2019.

In tears, as he recounted their final meeting, he said: "She said it (the money) was due to go into her bank account and she'd see what happened."

"How did she feel about that being the end of it?" asked prosecutor Ms Loram QC?

"Elated," said Mr Little. "She started to improve in herself. It was a bridge crossed. She felt.. that she could move forward."

Under cross examination, Mr Little was asked if he knew that the cash that had been kept in the safe had been subsequently put into Marion's bank account.

"She told me there was some accounts (that had) been made in her name," said Mr Little.

Mr Little was asked if he had been present at the alleged 2017 attack. "No," he replied.

He was also asked if he knew that Reader had bought Marion two cars. "No," he replied.

The trial continues.

Day three: Marion Price murder trial