Woman 'raped and murdered by her ex–fiancé at a luxury five–star hotel owed him £100,000', court hears

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

A man accused of murdering his ex–fiancée at a luxury five–star hotel told jurors she owed him around £100,000 at the time of her death, a court has heard.
Samantha Mickleburgh, 54, was found dead in a twin room at the exclusive Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, on the morning of April 14 last year.
The mother–of–two, from Axminster, Devon, had spent the night at the hotel with her ex–fiancé, James Cartwright, because she 'didn't want him to feel lonely' on his birthday, Guildford Crown Court was told.
Cartwright, 61, made a 999 call at around 8:30am claiming he woke to find Ms Mickleburgh lifeless beside him in bed.
Wearing a dark suit, Cartwright took to the witness stand on Monday and claimed that Ms Mickleburgh had borrowed tens of thousands of pounds from him as part of a property development project – and by the time she died, the debt had ballooned to a six figure sum.
He told the court: 'She purchased a property to fix up and collected the keys in early March 2023.'
He added they were 'very close' at the time and that he lent her £30,000 in April to help fund the renovation.
'She planned to get a mortgage once it was habitable and repay him 'but (the money) ended up running out quite quickly,' the court heard.
By July, she had secured the mortgage and they began living together in the house. At that point, Cartwright said she owed him between £40,000 and £50,000. That figure had risen to 'about £100,000' by the time of her death, he claimed.
Cartwright also told jurors that he had proposed to Ms Mickleburgh during a romantic getaway in the autumn of 2023 – a proposal that was met with what he described as 'an immediate and emphatic yes'.
'Everything (was) extremely amicable and friendly and loving' during the trip, he added.
But just days after returning home, he claimed their relationship took a turn when he spotted a 'highly sexual' WhatsApp message on her phone from a former partner.
'I was deeply shocked and very upset and very hurt,' he said.
His barrister, Martin Rutherford KC, asked whether he had spoken to Ms Mickleburgh about what he saw.
The defendant replied: 'Yes, I did, it went not well – Samantha was very embarrassed that I'd seen it and read it and stormed out of the house without any sort of explanation and response, which I was even more upset about.
'She got into her car. It was clear that she was going to drive away. I pulled (the gate) to prevent the car from leaving.
'She chose to drive through the gate and onto the road, so I had to put myself in front of the car to stop her leaving, because the gate hadn't worked.'
He admitted to jurors: 'I was very embarrassed by my behaviour, I had overreacted,' adding that he later apologised.
From that point, the relationship began to deteriorate.
Later in October, Cartwright claimed he discovered another string of messages — again sexually explicit — between Ms Mickleburgh and the same man, this time on her laptop.
'There were a very large quantity of messages and they were highly sexually explicit between both of them – it wasn't just one–way traffic, it was both ways,' he said.
'Again, I was absolutely devastated,' he added, telling jurors that it destroyed his trust in her.
Despite the tensions, they continued living together until February this year and remained physically intimate, the court heard.
Then, around two weeks before he moved out, Cartwright said he again saw messages between Ms Mickleburgh and her ex.
But this time, he stayed silent: 'I chose a different tack and, this time, I didn't disclose to Samantha that I had seen them. I suppose, if I'm honest, I wanted to catch her out.
'I asked her when she'd last had contact with him and she said 'oh, towards October last year – she hadn't heard anything from him since'.
'It was almost terminal on my part, I just couldn't get beyond it.'
Cartwright said that on February 17, Ms Mickleburgh confided in him that she was 'really struggling' with various pressures in her life — from family to job hunting.
He told the court he offered to move out to a commercial property he had access to in Axminster.
After moving out, he downloaded dating app Bumble and began messaging two women.
'I was just looking for companionship, friendship,' he said.
In texts read to the court, Cartwright told one of the women - who he had not yet met - about an upcoming birthday dinner with Ms Mickleburgh, who he described as the 'love of my life'.
He wrote: 'I'm not planning it, she is. It has the feel of a final farewell.'
Another message said: 'It could go any way… the last goodbye.'
Cartwright told jurors he had been married and divorced three times and has three adult daughters.
He denies raping and murdering Ms Mickleburgh between April 12 and 14, 2024, and also denies a charge of controlling and coercive behaviour between May 1, 2022, and April 14, 2024.