Woman fractured skull before ex allegedly strangled her to death in luxury hotel

Samantha Mickleburgh, from Axminster, Devon, was found dead at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, on the morning of April 14 last year.

The mother of two, 54, had arranged to stay in a twin room with her ex-fiance, James Cartwright, the night before, because she “didn’t want him to feel lonely” on his birthday, a trial at Guildford Crown Court previously heard.

Cartwright called 999 at about 8.30am on April 14 claiming he had discovered the lifeless body of Ms Mickleburgh lying next to him in bed.

Dr Robert Chapman, who conducted a post-mortem examination on April 18, found she died by “manual compression of the neck” consistent with “strangulation or throttling”.

The level of haemorrhaging suggested continuous pressure was placed on her neck for 30 seconds, he told jurors on Friday.

Prosecutor Louise Oakley played a stop watch for 30 seconds to give the court “an understanding of that length of time in real life”.

Her skull had also been fractured near her right eye socket while she was still alive, Dr Chapman told the court.

Pathologists use a three-point scale to measure the use of force: mild, moderate, and severe.

Dr Chapman said evidence of a bone fracturing would generally lead to a conclusion of “severe force, so at the top end of the scale”.

Asked how someone would sustain such an injury, Dr Chapman said: “This is the result of a blunt impact of some sort to the right side of the forehead”.

Giving a list of possible causes, he said: “A heavy, unprotected fall onto a hard surface, so someone falling and striking their head onto a hard surface without protecting themselves by putting their arms out.

“A blow with a firm object could also do it. The possibility of a head being forced, or forcibly impacted, against a flat surface like a wall could also produce that type of injury.”

He could not say which option was more likely.

The prosecutor asked if the injuries would align with “the forcing of Samantha Mickleburgh into a wall resulting in a fracture to her skull, resulting in a period perhaps of reduced consciousness, or concussion” before she was moved onto the bed and strangled.

Dr Chapman said “there’s nothing in the pathology that could undermine that particular sequence, but that’s a particular sequence”, later adding that there were other possible scenarios too.

He agreed that Ms Mickleburgh could not have inflicted the injuries on herself.

Cartwright claimed that Ms Mickleburgh had rolled out of bed during the night, hit her head on the bedside table, had a nose bleed and later died in her sleep, the trial heard previously.

The doctor accepted defence barrister Martin Rutherford’s proposition that some of the injuries could have been caused by falling onto a hard object in the room such as the floor tiles, bedside table, or radiator.

Ms Oakley asked if the injuries “in their totality” were “consistent with somebody falling out of her bed, banging her head, falling back onto the bed, falling asleep, and dying in her sleep?”

Dr Chapman said “no”.

On April 15, prior to police seizing his devices, a factory reset was performed on Cartwright’s iPhone Pro Max.

Its contents was subsequently restored from a backup using his desktop computer.

The blouse worn to dinner by Ms Mickleburgh on April 13 was later found in a drawer in a property in Axminster with “light, indistinct blood staining” on the right sleeve.

Forensics concluded that the blood “had been removed or altered in the intervening period, probably by washing”, Ms Oakley said as she read out agreed facts.

Cartwright, 61, of no fixed address, is on trial accused of raping and murdering Ms Mickleburgh between April 12 and April 14 last year.

He also denies one count of controlling and coercive behaviour between May 1 2022 and April 14 2024.

The trial continues.