A father who done murdered his estranged daughter by running her over in his car has died in prison, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has said. Nigel Malt, 47, was jailed in 2022 for the killing of his 19-year-old daughter Lauren after he deliberately ran her over twice following a family row. The murderer died at category B prison HMP Gartree on April 29. A cause of death has not yet been released. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has launched an investigation into his death, as is standard after a prisoner dies in custody.
Life Behind Bars for Nigel Malt
Malt was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty in July 2022 of crushing Lauren to death in his car while ‘totally consumed by anger’. He was originally given a minimum term of 18 years, but this was increased on appeal to 22 years. The father, who was estranged from his wife and children, had already threatened her boyfriend with a crowbar outside her home in West Winch, Norfolk, on January 23, 2022, where she lived with her mother and younger siblings. On the day of the tragedy, Malt had argued with his daughter before threatening her partner, Andrew Marnell, with the weapon. He then got into his car and reversed over his daughter, before then driving over her a second time.
The Tragic Incident and Legal Proceedings
Afterwards, he put her body into the passenger seat and drove her to hospital in King’s Lynn, where she was pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination recorded that she died of significant traumatic injuries to her chest and abdomen. Prosecutors said that after Malt ‘failed in his bid to inflict violence’ on Ms Malt’s boyfriend and she told him to go home ‘he was totally consumed with anger’. They added that the ‘estrangement from his wife and family no doubt fuelled his anger’. Malt’s wife, Karen, had reported him to police in April 2021 for assaulting her, the prosecutor said, with the defendant arrested and bailed at the time. On the evening Lauren was killed, Malt went to the shop where his wife worked, drove to her home and made repeated phone calls.
The Final Moments and Legal Consequences
‘The defendant’s relationship with his family was broken and it was something he wasn’t prepared to accept,’ said the prosecutor. Malt, of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, denied his daughter’s murder, claiming it was an accident, but was found guilty following a trial. Tributes were left outside the family home in Leete Way in West Winch, Norfolk. While at the shop where his wife was, he made 19 attempted calls to the landline of her home, where Lauren and her boyfriend were, between 6.25pm and 6.52pm. Malt’s ‘persistent’ calls went unanswered until a final one which was, and lasted one minute and six seconds. Within two minutes of the call, he drove to the family home in Leete Way. After Malt ran over his daughter, he said ‘don’t get the police’. At trial, he denied murder and maintained Lauren’s death was an accident, but was unanimously convicted. A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘HMP Gartree prisoner Nigel Malt died on 29 April 2025. As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’ Adrian Usher, of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, said: ‘The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigate deaths in custody. ‘We are conducting an independent investigation into the death of Nigel Malt at HMP Gartree on 29 April 2025. We will publish our investigation report after his inquest’.
