Killer cashed in on death of girlfriend with magazine article

Less than a year after Susan Nicholson was found dead in her home, the 47-year-old spoke to Take a Break and said he “fell to the floor crying” after her death and was desperately “trying to come to terms” with the loss.

His shameless act emerged after he was jailed for life for her murder. Her parents told of their ordeal over six years as they fought for justice in their daughter’s name.

When she died in 2011, Trigg was not treated as a suspect by Sussex Police and an inquest found her death was accidental after he claimed he had unintentionally rolled on top of her and suffocated her in his sleep.

But rather than shying away from publicity, Trigg spoke to a journalist at the magazine which invites people to sell their stories.

It is not clear how much he pocketed from the feature entitled “Killed by a Cuddle”, but Take a Break’s website currently boasts to offer up to £2,000 in cash for stories.

In the piece, which appeared in the magazine’s March 22 edition in 2012, Trigg described how the pair often slept “cuddled up” on the sofa and he had “no idea” it could be so dangerous.

Trigg told readers he rolled on top of Ms Nicholson’s head, adding: “Susan, who weighed eight stone, had suffocated under my 13 stone frame.”

The piece also quoted coroner Michael Kendall who said during the inquest: “There is no doubt that death was caused by Mr Trigg overlaying on her face. There is no evidence whatsoever that this was part of an altercation, violence, or an incident of aggression of any kind.”

But in reality Trigg deliberately suffocated the 52-year-old on April 17, 2011, in Rowlands Road, Worthing, after forcing her face into a pillow on the sofa.

Sentencing him to a minimum term of 25 years, Justice Ingrid Simler, said there was no evidence of pre-meditation but it was clear he intended to kill her because the compression of her face would have lasted at least 15 seconds.

Ms Nicholson’s mother Elizabeth Skelton said she was “shocked” and “disgusted” when she read the article when it was initially published, all the while suspecting him of murder.

In the feature Trigg claimed the pair moved into a flat together but his trial head how Ms Nicholson had saved to be able to buy a home of her own outright after a string of successful jobs in the financial sector, including at Coutts - which counts the Queen among its customers.

Trigg did not own any part of it, something her parents attest to.

Trigg also claimed in the article Ms Nicholson died shortly after he proposed and they were engaged to be married - another detail her parents strenuously dispute.

Mrs Skelton told The Argus: “While she was with Robert she told us she did not want to marry.”

‘I LAID MY HEAD ON HER CHEST AND WE FELL ASLEEP’

ON page 51 of Take a Break’s March 22, 2012, edition, killer Robert Trigg fabricated a tale of his suffering when Susan Nicholson died.

Under the headline “Killed by a cuddle” in a section of the magazine entitled Our Lives, the 52-year-old told of his heartbreak when he woke to find his girlfriend dead.

It begins: “She had beautiful, bright blue eyes and from the moment I met her, all I wanted to do was make her smile.”

He goes on to describe how there was something “very special” about Ms Nicholson and recalled how he plucked up the courage to ask her on a date after they met in alcohol rehab.

In the article he said: “When I was with Susan the world seemed a better place and I had no urge to drink.”

This is where the lies begin. He told the journalist writing the piece this despite knowing they had both been drinking heavily just before he killed her less than a year before.

Setting the scene for the night in question, he said: “One evening, Susan and I were on the sofa watching a film. When it ended, I noticed she’d fallen asleep. As I got up, my movements disturbed her. She yawned and said ‘Please can we just sleep here tonight? I’m too comfy to move.’ ‘OK, love’, I replied. I settled down beside her and laid my head on her chest. We fell asleep.”

Knowing full well he had killed her, he then spoke of the moment he claimed to have discovered her motionless body: “Next morning I woke up with my head on her arm of the sofa. Susan was under me. She seemed very still.

“She didn’t move and I started to panic. I held her hand and said ‘Susan, please come back. Don’t leave me, not now’. Then I grabbed the phone and called my neighbour.”

This is another lie – his trial heard how he called his brother first before his neighbour, resulting in at least a 45-minute delay in the 999 call from when he claimed to have found her dead.

He claimed in the article when paramedics confirmed she was dead he “started to shake and fell to the floor crying” and later “broke down in tears” at the police station.

He brazenly spoke about how her family blamed him for her death and said it was “hard not being able to say a proper goodbye” after being unwelcome at the funeral.

Trigg finished his work of fiction by saying: “I am now trying to come to terms with what happened. As long as I still have my precious memories, I believe Susan will always be with me.”