Teenager Becky Watts texted her boyfriend: “I love you so much” hours before she was murdered by her step-brother and his partner in a sexually-motivated attack, a jury has heard.
In the days running up to 16-year-old Becky’s killing, she appeared happy and relaxed, attending a skittles evening and spending hours playing computer games and watching films, Bristol crown court was told.
Becky’s step-brother, Nathan Matthews, and his partner, Shauna Hoare, are accused of plotting to kidnap Becky, murdering her at her home before dismembering her body and hiding the remains in a shed.
On Thursday, the jury was told for the first time that Matthews, a 28-year-old fast food restaurant worker and former territorial army soldier, admits the manslaughter of Becky, dismembering her body and possessing two stun guns. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and murder. Hoare, 21, denies any involvement in the killing or its aftermath.
In a statement read in court, Becky’s boyfriend, Luke Oberhansli, 17, said the teenager seemed happy and free of anxiety. He last saw her on 17 February – two days before Becky was allegedly murdered. They played computer games together.
In the early hours of 19 February she sent him the affectionate text and when he could not contact her later he went to her house at around 5pm where she lived with her father, Darren Galsworthy, and her step-mother, Anjie. He said it was unusual for her not to reply to his text messages.
Oberhansli said Hoare answered the door. “I asked if Becky was there. She asked Anjie, who replied that she didn’t think so.”
According to the prosecution, by that time Becky had already been killed and her body hidden in the boot of Matthews and Hoare’s car. Oberhansli said that Hoare seemed “ok” when he spoke to her.
The court has been told that Matthews equipped himself with a stun gun, handcuffs and mask before he and his girlfriend carried out the sexually-motivated murder. Matthews and Hoare are said to have had a shared interest in kidnapping and sex with petite, teenage girls. It is claimed that after the killing they took her body back to their house where they used a circular saw to dismember her body.
The jury has heard that Becky was attacked in her bedroom and a postmortem found she was suffocated, struck in the neck with a screwdriver and, after she died, stabbed 15 times in the abdomen.
Matthews told police that he came up with the idea of kidnapping Becky to “teach her a lesson” because he believed she was selfish and treated his mother badly. He claimed he had pulled on a mask when he pounced on her but it slipped as he struggled with the girl in her bedroom so he strangled her.
The prosecution claims that Matthews and Hoare later drove back to their home with Becky’s body in the boot and casually ordered a meal and browsed the television listings.
Over the next two days Matthews bought a circular saw, quibbling about the price, face masks and gloves and together the couple fetched bleach, rubble sacks, rubber gloves and clingfilm.
According to the prosecution they dismembered Becky’s body, probably in the bathroom of their home while their child was in the house. The remains were packaged up in plastic, some encased in salt, and stored in a neighbour’s shed.
Matthews was to insist that Hoare knew nothing of the killing and was not involved in cutting up her body or hiding the remains.
But the prosecution alleges that both plotted to kidnap Becky for sexual reasons and both took part in the concealment of her body parts.
Opening the prosecution case on Tuesday, William Mousley QC said messages exchanged between Matthews and Hoare, who had a child together, showed they had a “shared interest” in petite, teenage girls and had discussed kidnapping one.
On one phone, said Mousley, was a “telling” video showing the rape of a teenager in which the attacker puts his hand over the victim’s mouth.
Mousley said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Hoare was “in blissful ignorance” of what was going on.
Another of Becky’s friends later told police the 16-year-old had once said that Matthews had threatened to kill her and given “graphic” descriptions of what he would do to her. The prosecution does not accept that Matthews strangled Becky but believes instead that he suffocated her, which requires much more force.
Hoare denies murder, conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial and possessing a prohibited weapon.
The prosecution alleges that four people helped Matthews and Hoare hide Becky’s body parts. Karl Demetrius, 29, and his girlfriend, Jaydene Parsons, 23, have admitted assisting an offender. James Ireland, 23, and Donovan Demetrius, 29, deny the same charge.
The trial continues.
