Becky Watts ‘suffocated’ in botched kidnap

The step-brother of St George teenager Becky Watts suffocated her in her own home before driving her body to his girlfriend’s house where it was dismembered in a bathroom using a knife and power saw, Bristol Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, hatched a “grotesquely executed plan” to kidnap the 16-year-old, which ended in her death and her body parts being bagged up and stored in a garden shed.

The couple, who “shared an unnatural interest” in teenage females, were assisted by four offenders in helping “hide her disguised remains” in bags which were taken from Hoare’s house in Cotton Mill Lane, Barton Hill, across the road to the Barton Court estate.

Both Hoare and Matthews were “responsible” for Becky’s murder which had a “sexual motive”, the jury heard on the first day of a six-week trial.

On a disturbing opening day, the family of Becky came in and out of the public gallery as graphic details were revealed of how the schoolgirl’s body was dismembered, separated and stored before being discovered by police.

Becky went missing from her home in Crown Hill on February 20, sparking a major police search which drew the attention of the nation.

The search took police to Cotton Mill Lane in Barton Court before ending at a property around the corner in Barton Court, where Becky Watts’ body parts were discovered on March 2.

The court heard Matthews and Hoare had phoned 18 Crown Hill on the morning of Becky’s disappearance to ask if her step-mother Anjie could leave a key out for them when she went to hospital.

When they arrived, Matthews, according to his own police statement, went to the door wearing a mask and attempted to stun Watts.

Once in the house, he said that his mask slipped, revealing his identity, and he then strangled Becky before putting her in a bag in his car.

Matthews and Hoare, it was heard, had left their property in Cotton Mill Lane in their Vauxhall Zafira heading to Crown Hill and stopping off at Tesco Metro in Redfield on the way to buy batteries – allegedly for a stun gun.

Becky’s father Darren returned home from work at about 5pm and Matthews and Hoare left in their car at around 6pm, returning to Cotton Mill Lane, where it was heard they ordered food from the Chinese takeaway where Mattthews worked.

“All normal behaviour, other than the fact they had a dead body on their hands,” prosecutor William Mousley QC said.

The next day, on Friday, February 20, Matthews went to Rajani Superstor in Clay Hill, where he was caught on CCTV buying two bottles of drain cleaner.

He then went to B&Q, it was heard, where he purchased a circular power saw, gloves, face masks and goggles, querying the price of the saw at the checkout.

“The prosecution say, and it became clear as the police investigation continued, that those items were needed to be used for dismemberment of Becky’s body,” Mousley said.

Later that afternoon, Becky was reported missing by her father and by the evening the police visited the family home in Crown Hill where they found Becky’s father Darren and step-mother Anjie with Matthews and Hoare. All “seemed concerned for her missing”.

Matthews and Hoare returned to their home in Cotton Mill Lane that evening where an internet search of “do you want to hide a body?” was recorded.

The next afternoon Matthews and Hoare bought bleach, rubble sacks, sponge, tape and roles of clingfilm. Police believe Becky’s body was cut up in a “lengthy process” and packaged using “metres and metres” of clingfilm between February 20 and 22.

On February 23, Matthews phoned Karl Demetrius, 29 of Barton Court who was working with colleague James Ireland, 23, of Richmond Villas, Avonmouth, at British Aerospace in Filton and arranged for help moving the body parts for £5,000, which were described as stolen goods.

The parts were moved in suitcases and bags from Cotton Mill Lane to Barton Court late that night and stored in the garden shed.

On February 26, forensic scientists discovered finger prints and blood on the door frame of Becky’s bedroom in Crown Hill.

The discovery led to the arrest of Matthews and Hoare on February 28 for kidnap. They were rearrested on March 2 for murder, leading to Matthews admitting he killed his step-sister by strangling her while trying to kidnap her.

His admissions pointed the police to Barton Court where the body had been hidden and police observed the house, arresting Demetrius as soon as he left. Donovan Demitrius, Karl’s brother, was arrested at the house and Karl’s partner Jaydene Parsons was also arrested as police swooped on the property.

Parsons and Karl Demitrius have admitted assisting an offender, while Ireland and Donovan Demitrius have pleaded not guilty.

In the garden shed, police found bags containing all the equipment used to dismember Becky and all the parts of her body. Some body parts were in salt and cat litter, decontamination techniques Matthews may have been aware of from his time in the Territorial Army, it was said.

A post-mortem examination revealed she had died of suffocation, not strangulation. The body had been severed in eight places, the court heard, and had been stabbed in the abdomen 15 times after death.

Members of the public gallery were heard retching as the full details were read out by the prosecutor.

Further police searches at Cotton Mill Lane found receipts for the items in the shed and computers containing indecent images and videos of teenage girls. Facebook and text messages between Matthews and Hoare also revealed their interest in kidnap.

On a phone was found a “telling video”. “It was a video which showed the rape of a teenager with the attacker’s hand over her mouth,” said Mousley.

In a police interview, Matthews said he was fully responsible. “He said he wanted to kidnap Becky because she was selfish and treated her mum badly and wanted to teach her a lesson,” Mousley said.

Hoare denied any involvement during her police interview.

The trial continues.