Daughter tells court how 'bubbly' mum 'changed' after meeting man accused of murdering her

A daughter has described to a court how her 'bubbly' mum was 'belittled' by the man accused of killing her.

Toni Brown appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday (October 9) as a witness for the prosecution in the case against Mike Reader and Stephen Welch, co-accused of the murder of Earls Barton mum Marion Price who was shot in the head on December 15 last year.

Appearing via videolink, Mrs Brown said she was very close to her mum and before her 2012 marriage to Reader she would see her most days, walking the five minutes between their homes in Earls Barton.

Asked to describe her mum by prosecuting barrister Mary Loram QC, she said she and her brother Gary Price had a great relationship with her.

"She was bubbly, fun, always laughing and joking," she said. "She was hysterical."

Mrs Brown said that after marrying the defendant and moving to his bungalow in Booth Rise, Northampton, Marion began to change.

"To start with she was fine. As time went on I'd step through the door and she'd be quite on edge."

She described a time when her mum had bought a treadmill because Reader, 70, had said she was fat and another incident when she and her brother Gary had gone for a roast dinner at Marion and Reader's home.

"Me and Gary were laughing about how she'd overdone the veg," said Mrs Brown,

"She took us aside and said don't criticise me in front of him because it gives him ammunition.

"She was quite upset. She'd say he'd use things to belittle her."

In about 2017 Gary had organised tickets for his mum and Reader to go and see Jersey Boys in the theatre he worked at in London. The pair had been provided with their own box and a private room with food and drink at the interval.

Marion, enjoying the musical, got up to dance near to the end of the show, the court was told.

Mrs Brown said: "She said he'd left her in the theatre because she was embarrassing because she was dancing. It's a musical. Everyone was dancing.

"He drove back to Northampton and left her. I can't remember how she got back."

Talking about an alleged incident of GBH in 2017, after which Reader was found not guilty of hitting Marion over the head with a mallet, Mrs Brown said: "She was distraught.

"She couldn't believe it had happened."

Mrs Brown said her mum had been upset that Reader had been found not guilty, and that she had believed photos of her injuries taken by her daughter had not been shown to the jury.

"She was absolutely disgusted," said Mrs Brown. "She felt there was evidence not shown that needed to be shown."

Mrs Brown said that Stephen Welch had attended the 2018 trial to support his friend Reader.

Under cross examination by William Harbage QC, Mrs Brown admitted that she believed it was the first time that Reader had been to a London theatre.

"Did she tell you that when she was dancing away, he said, 'I'm going if you don't sit down, this is embarrassing'?" asked Mr Harbage?

"Yes, my mum did tell me that," said Mrs Brown.

Mr Harbage asked if Reader had, in fact, waited outside the theatre for 20 minutes for Marion and had only gone back to Northampton when she did not come out.

When asked whether she'd ever heard Reader calling her mum fat, Mrs Brown replied: "No, not from his mouth."

When questioned about the 2018 not guilty verdict at Reader's GBH trial, Mr Habbage asked Mrs Brown: "Did she tell you that Mr Reader had friends and influences within the court system so she didn't expect him to be found guilty?"

"Yes, she did," replied Mrs Brown.

"Did she tell you who these friends were?" asked Mr Harbage.

"No, we didn't know who they were," said Mrs Brown, "She was just concerned that there were people he knew. He gave the impression to her that he had people in high places."

Asked by Mary Loram QC what Marion's reaction had been after her divorce financial settlement on November 25, 2019, Mrs Brown said: "She just said 'I've won'. She was smiling. 'It's all over, it's done'

"She did say, 'If anything happens to me, it'll be him.

"I did feel sick because I knew it wouldn't be over."

Also in the witness box on Friday was Scott Brown, Mrs Brown's husband.

He described the moment when, on December 15 last year, he rushed the 500m from his family home to Marion's ground floor flat to find his mother-in-law slumped over in the driver's seat in the car park with her keys in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other.

Despite his efforts to give her CPR, it was clear that Marion had been dead for some time.

Mary Loram QC said: "After they (the police) had examined the scene, did they ask you did Marion have access to a firearm, and did that make you think about something unusual that you had heard that afternoon? And that unusual thing that you had heard on that afternoon was the sound of a shotgun being fired?"

"Yes," replied Mr Brown.

Describing how he had looked at his watch to see the time when the shotgun was fired, he said he believed it had been about 5.34pm.

"I remember thinking, why is someone firing a shotgun in the dark?"

The trial continues.