'I feel unsafe in Pinewood Road': Jury hears emotional voice note from Kimberley Thompson about Northampton home where she was later found dead
A jury heard how Kimberley Thompson said she felt ‘amazingly unsafe’ in the Northampton home where she would later be found dead.
Giving evidence at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday, June 10, voice notes exchanged between Kim and her husband, Michael Thompson, were played to jurors.
55-year-old Michael Thompson, of Pinewood Road, has pleaded not guilty to the rape and murder of 43-year-old Kimberley Thompson, who was found dead at a home in Pinewood Road on August 9, 2025.
Thompson appeared at Northampton Crown Court on December 16, 2025, when he also pleaded not guilty to two additional charges of committing an act with intent to pervert the course of public justice.
The trial is expected to last around six weeks and jurors were sworn in on Thursday, May 21, ahead of the prosecution opening the case on Tuesday, May 26.
One voice note, sent by an emotional Kim on September 13, 2023, after Thompson had called for a divorce in the months prior, saw her seek to explain why she had bought a house of her own and why she no longer felt secure at the family home in Pinewood Road.
She said: "I do know this is all because of me. I'm not trying to excuse it. I'm not trying to back away. I understand that.
"Like I said to you all the way along, you tried to make us safe and I ruined that. And in me ruining that, I didn't feel safe anymore for a long time.
"I didn't feel the house was anything to do with me. You wanted a new kitchen, you get a new kitchen. You wanted an en-suite, you wanted to do an extension. They were all things you were building in the house. Maybe in your mind you were doing it with me, but you wasn't, you were doing what you wanted to do for you.
"Because I wasn't involved in the house any more and every time we argued that was made clear to me. So the actions weren't the same as what was being said. I felt amazingly unsafe.
"I needed to do something. I just thought I'll take this opportunity. Also in my head a bit of, 'OK, it's there'.
"More importantly than that, if there was a chance for us, I just instantly thought I'd rent it out. Not that I'd get a lot but I'd get a little bit and that would help me and maybe I won't have to do overtime every weekend. That's how I saw it. It would help me with a little bit of financial income.
“I know I caused me feeling unsafe. I know I caused the problems. But maybe my thinking was wrong.
"For me buying a house was OK. I'd always been thinking about it because I feel unsafe in Pinewood Road.
"I really wish I didn't. I really wish I hadn't caused all these problems and I didn't feel unsafe. But at 40 years old and feeling that unsafe and not having nothing but a little car and nothing.
"It doesn't change anything about how I feel. I can say I love you, and I know you'll say the actions aren't there. I know my actions haven’t shown that. I am sorry.
"But I needed to tell you, you did what you wanted at Pinewood Road and you put yourself in that position. It made me feel like I didn't have a say because it was yours.
"And I know that you've done that for you and it would have been for me and the family as well, but I ruined that and I'm not included in that.
"I'm sorry I done and carried on doing the things I did. But I never saw myself going back in that safety box for you and that's because I ruined it."
Thompson responded: "I made us safe. It took a while. It wasn't easy emotionally, mentally, because of your actions. Physically, I just got on with it.
"You didn't lose being safe, Kim. You threw your safe away like it was nothing with your never-ending actions.
"You didn't feel like the house was anything to do with you because of my reaction to your cheating again, threatening me with 50/50.
"You're really only buying a house because of the situation.
"As I said before, you didn't want happy times, house, holidays, restaurants, hotels, bonding, growing, intimacy, affection, love, because you weren't happy, because you didn't love me, which is OK."
The trial continues.