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Estranged father, 45, who ran over his daughter, 19, jailed for life for her murder

(PA)
Nigel Malt, 45, reversed his car over his 19-year-old daughter. (PA)

A father who murdered his daughter by running her over twice with his car, after she tried to protect her boyfriend, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years.

Nigel Malt, 45, reversed his Mercedes over his 19-year-old daughter Lauren Malt in West Winch in Norfolk and then stopped and drove forward over her body on 23 January, after threatening her boyfriend with a crowbar.

Afterwards, the defendant put his daughter’s body in the passenger side of his car and drove to the shop where the girl’s mother, his estranged wife Karen Malt, worked.

Malt, of Lynn Road, King’s Lynn, denied his daughter’s murder, claiming it was an accident, but was found guilty following an earlier trial at Norwich Crown Court and jailed at the same court on Wednesday.

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(Lauren Malt/Facebook)
Lauren Malt, 19, was pronounced dead at hospital in King’s Lynn. (Lauren Malt/Facebook)

Malt ran over his daughter outside the home where she lived with her mother and younger siblings.

Lauren Malt was pronounced dead at hospital in King’s Lynn, where the defendant took her.

Malt was estranged from his wife and his children and living separately at a different address.

At the time, he was on bail awaiting trial on two counts of assaulting his wife in March and April 2021.

Karen Malt, fighting back tears as she read her victim impact statement in court, said: “I remember the call saying ‘I will bring your daughter over, she’s dead’.

“I was screaming ‘which one’ to him down the phone but he wouldn’t tell me.”

She said that when Malt said he was driving to her, she thought that her daughter “must be okay”.

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Nigel Malt reversed his Mercedes over his daughter. (Norfolk Police)
Nigel Malt reversed his Mercedes over his daughter. (Norfolk Police)

But when his car arrived and she saw inside the passenger door “the feeling of dread started to come over me”.

“I just knew she wasn’t going to make it,” said Ms Malt. “She was stuffed in the footwell.

“I saw her face and felt sick.

“I couldn’t believe she had been stuffed down there.

“Seeing her in that position for me was worse than knowing she had been run over.”

She said she tried to move her daughter into the seat, with no help from the defendant.

“I can’t fathom how a parent could kill their own child,” she said.

“How do you forgive?”

A general view of Norwich Crown and County Court
Nigel Malt was jailed at Norwich Crown Court. (PA)

Ms Malt said she would “forever remember that night and think about ‘what if’”, including what if she had left the relationship sooner.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, earlier told jurors that Malt argued with his daughter and threatened her boyfriend, Arthur Marnell, with a crowbar in Leete Way.

He said that after Malt “failed in his bid to inflict violence” on his daughter’s boyfriend and she told him to go home, “he was totally consumed with anger”.

Judge Anthony Bate said Malt used his car as a “lethal weapon in an alcohol-fuelled rage in a residential street”.

He told Malt: “She (Lauren) should have been safe in her father’s company.”

The judge sentenced Malt to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years, which is the amount of time he must spend behind bars before he can be considered for release.

He said Malt was tested by police at the time and found to have 170 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, more than the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

The judge directed that the two counts of assault of Karen Malt will lie on the file.