The stepbrother of Becky Watts treated her body with “a lack of compassion and humanity” but that does not make him guilty of her murder, his barrister has told a jury.
In his closing speech, Adam Vaitilingam QC said the jurors probably felt “contempt and loathing” for Nathan Matthews, who claimed he accidentally killed Becky before dismembering the 16-year-old’s body with a circular saw.
But Vaitilingam insisted the prosecution’s allegation that Matthews and his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, targeted Becky in a sexually motivated kidnap plot was wrong.
Andrew Langdon QC, defending Hoare, dismissed suggestions she was a “sex fiend” and said she had been dominated by Matthews.
Becky was allegedly suffocated in the bedroom of her home in Bristol in February. Matthews, 28, and Hoare, 21, are accused of dismembering her body in the bath of their home with a circular saw. Becky’s remains, packed into suitcases and a blue plastic storage box, were discovered in a garden shed.
Matthews, who has no previous convictions, has admitted Becky’s manslaughter, claiming that he planned to kidnap her to teach her a lesson for how she had been treating his mother, and that he killed her when it went wrong. He also admits dismembering her body. Both he and Hoare say she had nothing to do with the plot, the killing or the aftermath.
After hearing 21 days of often disturbing evidence, Vaitilingam described his client as “a man who has shown himself to be capable of killing a 16-year-old and then treating her body with such a lack of compassion and humanity”.
He told the jury: “I do not ask for sympathy for Nathan Matthews. He deserves none.” He said Matthews’ plan was “badly conceived, bone-headed, extreme and frankly absurd”.
But he insisted Matthews’ motive was to teach Becky a lesson rather than sexual interest, and that he had accidentally killed her. “There is no evidence to suggest that he had a sexual interest in Becky,” Vaitilingam said. “Nothing anyone noticed, nothing he said, nothing he put in a text or on Facebook in an unguarded moment.
“What Nathan Matthews did to Becky’s body afterwards will haunt all of us. It is grim evidence and it will stay with us for some time. It is not the actions of a rational man.”
The barrister questioned whether his client had the “small voice of calm” that most people have to protect them from doing something dangerous or extreme. He said Matthews had a “black and white way of looking at the world” and could get upset or lash out if things were not going as he expected.
Becky’s father, Darren Galsworthy, and his wife, Anjie, Matthews’ mother, have watched much of the trial from the public gallery.
Vaitilingam said: “He [Matthews] is criticised for not showing sorrow, for not looking at the family when he was giving his evidence. You might say that he was hanging his head in shame for the terrible things he has done, in front of his own mother, in front of the man at whose wedding he was best man.”
But he asked: “Did he ever really intend to kill Becky and take her away from those two people? Did he mean to do it?”
Langdon said Hoare had had a troubled upbringing, met Matthews as a young teenager while at school and lost contact with friends and family. He said she was isolated, had no independence and low self-esteem.
She lived with Matthews in a cluttered house. “Her life and her house is filled both literally and metaphorically by Nathan Matthews – filled with his junk and his issues,” Langdon said.
Referring to text exchanges between Matthews and Hoare discussing the kidnap of teenagers, Langdon said they were “shameful” but had been sent to “excite or to please Nathan”.
He went on: “Sex fiend Shauna Hoare? Her sexuality has moved centre stage in this trial. It is the motive advanced, the reason given for why she was involved in the kidnap plot.”
The jury was read extracts of a police interview in which Hoare described her sex life with Matthews. “It’s not exactly Lady Macbeth is it?” Langdon asked.
Matthews, of Warmley, south Gloucestershire, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap. He admits killing Becky, perverting the course of justice, preventing the burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Hoare, of Bristol, denies murder, conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon. The trial continues.
