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'My evil hubby set fire to his best man'

Melissa Barnes had good reason to be grateful to her groom’s best man on their wedding day. John Maynard had given her fiancé Wayne a job, paid for their ceremony and helped them furnish their marital home.

But weeks later, Barnes destroyed all their lives with a horrific attack, in which he almost battered John to death before setting him alight and leaving him to die.

With burns to 40 per cent of his body, John had both legs amputated below the knee, leaving him in a wheelchair, and he lost most of the fingers on one hand. He’s also been left permanently brain damaged.

Last week, Barnes, 27, was sentenced to life for attempted murder, and his wife Melissa, 25, is now gradually coming to terms with the horrific truth about the man she married.

“I feel so stupid. It seems I never really knew the man I fell in love with,” she says. “I’m divorcing him now –
I just want to get on with the rest of my life.”

Instant attraction

Melissa was living in Worthing, Sussex, with her children Klaidon, now four, and Makensy, three, when she met charmer Barnes in February 2006. Cuddling Kyeland, her 18-month-old son by Barnes, she says: “I’d been separated from the other kids’ dad for seven months when my neighbour, Jane, introduced me to Wayne, her brother.

“He was tall and handsome, I was instantly attracted to him.” After the pair hit it off over a drink one day, they started seeing each other. She says: “I liked the fact he didn’t want to go out all the time like other men. The kids loved him and he’d even get up to do Makensy’s night feed.

“He could be a bit possessive, but I liked it at first because it made me feel cared for.” Barnes did tell her he had a previous conviction for unlawful wounding, but full-time mum Melissa believed him when he said it was all a mistake.  “He said he was innocent, and I believed him,” she says. “He was never violent with me.”

Although the couple had only been together for two months when Melissa unexpectedly fell pregnant, they were thrilled and Barnes moved in. And their whirlwind romance was made complete when he proposed in July 2006.

At the same time, Barnes also got a new job as a removal man, working for John Maynard, 37, a divorced dad-of-two. “John was a nice bloke, and he and Wayne hit it off,” says Melissa. “Wayne didn’t have many friends, so he and John would go out together or John would pop over to ours.”

Over time, though, Wayne’s possessiveness increased. Melissa says: “Wayne didn’t like me going out alone, and when he was at work he would text me constantly.” Naively, she adds: “I wasn’t that worried – I thought we’d be able to work through it.”

But, in a sinister indication of what was to come, he then dropped a bombshell. “Out of the blue, he asked me if I’d slept with someone for money,” says Melissa.  “I was horrified and denied it. I can only guess someone had made up a vicious lie about me, but he believed me, so I put the episode to the back of my mind.”

Blinded by love

In early 2007, the couple started making wedding plans, but realised it was going to be expensive. As John had helped them out in the past by giving them furniture, Barnes went to him again – this time for money.  John lent him just over £800, and later acted as the best man when the couple married at Worthing Register Office on 1  September.

Swept along by the excitement of her big day, Melissa tried to ignore the fact that Wayne’s controlling behaviour had been getting worse over the months. “Looking back, it was a big mistake to get married,” she says. “By then, he wouldn’t even let me go to the supermarket on my own – I felt suffocated, but I loved him.”

Things reached crisis point on Friday 26 October 2007, when the pair had an explosive row. Melissa says: “He wouldn’t let me go out to play bingo with my mum, and I yelled: ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ I didn’t mean it, but he went.”

Barnes didn’t return until two days later, leaving Melissa frantic. She says: “When Wayne appeared at 7am, he was splattered in blood. He told me he’d woken up next to a guy who was covered in blood and ran off. I was stunned and just went into shock.”

Wayne put his clothes in a bin liner, then disappeared. Melissa says: “I tried to get hold of him all day, but he didn’t answer his phone. I felt totally helpless.” She only became aware of the full horror of what had happened when the police raided their home that evening. They explained how, in the early hours, a fight had started between Barnes and John at his flat.

After beating him and fracturing his skull in eight places, Barnes had set fire to John, leaving him for dead.He’d then stolen £30,000 and his sports car. After his visit to Melissa, he’d fled to Oxford but was later arrested.

“I wanted to believe he hadn’t done it. I even visited him on remand, but when he couldn’t deny the attack, I knew he was guilty,” says Melissa.

During his week-long trial at Hove Crown Court, it was revealed that John had recently told Barnes he thought he’d
been taking advantage of him and wouldn’t be giving him any more work. At the trial, Judge David Rennie branded the attack “an act of unspeakable savagery and ruthless betrayal,” and added: “[John’s] generosity had effectively been switched off. You set about trying to ensure he paid the ultimate price.”

In his defence, Barnes claimed he’d attacked John after he’d said he would “knock a few quid off” the money he owed in exchange for sex with Melissa. But Melissa, who’s still friends with John, refuses to believe this was the case. “John isn’t like that – he’s a family man,” she says. “I couldn’t even look at Wayne in that court.”

She’s had no contact with Barnes since his trial, but he has sent letters to Kyeland, which Melissa has kept. “One day I’ll tell Kyeland what his daddy did,” she sighs. “That’s going to be so hard – Wayne has ruined so many lives.”
John says: “No punishment can ever make up for what that monster did to me.”

Words by Sally Windsor