Gary Baird: Man who killed wife with hammer rang his GP 570 times

The first trial collapsed earlier this year after jurors were dismissed due to a legal issue.

That trial had heard that Susan Baird died after suffering multiple injuries, including fractures to her skull, lacerations on her brain and forehead and bruising on various parts of her body.

Her injuries were so bad that she had to be identified from her dental records.

The court previously heard that at 16:51 BST on 16 August 2020, Gary Baird called 999 and said: “I’ve just murdered my wife.”

He told the operator he had hit her with a hammer and when asked if she was dead, Baird replied: “I think so”.

Police attended the couple’s home and, after entering via an unlocked front door, they observed a heavily bloodstained Baird sitting in the kitchen with a wound to his head.

They then discovered Mrs Baird who was lying slumped on a sofa in a small room off the kitchen. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Baird was arrested and when asked about his head wound, he told officers: “I did this to myself”.

Admitting he attacked his wife with a hammer then turned the weapon on himself, Mr Baird, who is a former BBC security guard, also said “the voices in my head told me to do it”.

At the time of her death, Susan Baird worked as an administrator at Orangefield Presbyterian Church.