Rebecca Marie Watts (3 June 1998 – 19 February 2015) was a British student from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

who was murdered in 2015 at the age of 16. In November 2015, her step-brother, Nathan Matthews, was found guilty of her murder and was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

after 33 years. His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, was found guilty of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

and sentenced to 17 years in prison, although Hoare had insisted to police that she had nothing to do with the killing, or dismembering Watts' body and hiding the parts. Both Matthews and Hoare were also convicted of

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

preventing the lawful burial of a body Prevention of the lawful and decent burial of a dead body is an offence under the common law of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside of homicide (to be an added count) it is quite rare. It is triable by indictment and can be punished by, ...

perverting the course of justice Perverting the course of justice is an offence committed when a person prevents justice from being served on themselves or on another party. In England and Wales it is a common law offence, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Statu ...

and possession of two stun guns.

Disappearance, investigation, body discovery and arrests

Becky Watts was last seen at home in St George, Bristol, on the morning of 19 February 2015 by her step-mother Anjie Galsworthy, a

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

sufferer, who left the house at around 11:15 A.M for a hospital appointment. Watts was reported missing at around 4 pm the following day. Investigators found that her phone, laptop and tablet computer were missing from the house, but she had not taken any money or spare clothes with her and did not tell anyone that she was going away. On 22 February,

Avon and Somerset Police Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the county of Somerset and in four districts that used to be in the defunct county of Avon: Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and So ...

made their first appeal for information about her disappearance, and the following day, her father and grandmother appeared at a press conference appealing for her return. An online campaign using the hashtag "#FindBecky" was launched on social media, reaching more than two million people worldwide. Police searches focused on a number of properties in Barton Hill,

Southmead Southmead is a northern suburb and council ward of Bristol, in the south west of England, bordered by Filton in South Gloucestershire and Monks Park, Horfield, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym. The River Trym rises in Southmead and flows south we ...

, St George's Park and Troopers Hill nature reserve. In addition, searches were made in nearby open spaces and park areas, as well as house to house inquiries. Searches were also organised by public volunteers in areas including in Wharf Road in

Fishponds Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park (once the Vassall Family estate, also known as Oldbury Court). T ...

, Trym Valley and Badock's Wood. Police made a public appeal for information regarding the movements of a black

Vauxhall Zafira Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

between 19 and 23 February. Initial inquiries focused on the belief that Watts had disappeared after leaving the family home, based on statements given by her step-brother Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, who were at the house at the time. They said they had not seen Watts but "heard the door slam" and assumed she had left. On 28 February, Matthews and Hoare were arrested in connection with Watts's disappearance. On 2 March, they were re-arrested on suspicion of murder. The following day, Watts's dismembered body was found at a property in Barton Court, Barton Hill. On 4 March, Matthews was charged with murder. On 6 March, four other people who had been arrested were charged with assisting an offender, having been accused of helping to hide or dispose of Watts's body. A 23-year-old man who had also been arrested was released without charge. On 22 June, Hoare, who was originally charged with perverting the course of justice, was charged with murder. Matthews and Hoare were also charged with conspiracy to kidnap,

and possession of an illegal weapon. The couple were also charged with four unrelated counts of making indecent images of children. Matthews was also charged on unrelated counts of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

and

voyeurism Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature. The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". A ...

. Watts' funeral took place at St Ambrose Church in

Whitehall, Bristol Whitehall, is a district on the northeastern edge of central Bristol, within the electoral ward of Easton. Parks The local green space is Whitehall Playing Fields or Packer's Ground as it was known, taking its name from the local chocolate facto ...

, on 17 April 2015 and was described by her family as "an occasion to celebrate Becky's life". The service was followed by a private interment for her family and friends at Avon View Cemetery.

Trial, verdicts and sentencing

The murder trial began on 6 October 2015 at

Bristol Crown Court The Bristol Crown Court is a Crown Court venue in Bristol, England. It is located at the Law Courts in Small Street. Until 1993 the Crown Court met in the Guildhall, on the opposite side of the road. The new Crown Court, which has ten courtrooms ...

. It was the

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

's case that Watts was suffocated in her bedroom during a "sexually-motivated" kidnap plot carried out by Matthews and Hoare. According to the prosecution, after the killing, Matthews and Hoare put Watts's body into the boot of their car and stayed at the house for several more hours, during which time other family members arrived home. Later that day, they drove back to their own house, where over the next few days they dismembered her body using a knife and a

circular saw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...

and put the remains into bags and boxes, which were then hidden in a neighbour's shed. Matthews admitted killing Watts, but denied committing murder. He instead admitted

, telling the court that he had tried to kidnap his step-sister as a way of scaring her into changing what he perceived as her bad behaviour, but the plan went wrong and he accidentally killed her. Matthews insisted the killing took place while Hoare was in the garden, and that she was not involved. Hoare, who also denied murder, said she had no knowledge of the murder and had played no part in it, describing text messages she had exchanged with Matthews about kidnapping schoolgirls in the months before as "unfortunate" and "sarcastic". The prosecution claimed that the text messages between the two, as well as other content found at their home, suggested "a shared unnatural interest in attractive teenage females". The prosecution also relied on

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

evidence of the movements of Matthews and Hoare on the day Watts was last seen alive, and in the days which followed. On 19 February 2015, before going to Crown Hill, they were seen in a

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

supermarket buying batteries, which were allegedly needed for stun guns which they intended to use in the kidnap. Footage from the day after Watts was killed showed Matthews buying the circular saw that was used to dismember her body, and between 20 and 22 February, he and Hoare were captured shopping for cleaning products which it was said they required to clean the bathroom where the dismemberment took place. DNA linked both Matthews and Hoare to items that were found in the shed alongside the remains, and an expert was called to give evidence who said it would be "easier" to carry out the dismemberment if more than one person was involved. On 11 November 2015, after 3 hours and 27 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Matthews guilty of murder and Hoare guilty of manslaughter. Both were also convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing the lawful burial of a body and possession of two stun guns. Two men, James Ireland and Donovan Demetrius, were cleared of assisting an offender, which related to the moving and storing of packages containing Watts's remains. Demetrius's brother Karl and his girlfriend Jaydene Parsons, who owned the shed where the remains were stored, had admitted the same charge at an earlier pre-trial hearing, though both insisted they did not know the true contents of the packages. On 5 February 2016, Karl was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment and Parsons was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. On 13 November 2015, Justice Dingemans sentenced Matthews to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

with a minimum term of 33 years and Hoare to 17 years in prison. In his sentencing remarks, the judge agreed with the prosecution's belief that the planned kidnap was for a "sexual purpose", telling Matthews he had "a fixation with having sex with petite teenage girls" and that he believed Hoare had been "persuaded to participate in this fixation." He added: "Finally I should like to pay public tribute to the family of Becky for the dignified way in which they have conducted themselves throughout these proceedings" and then continued: "Hearing the evidence during the trial has been difficult for anyone but it is plain that it has been an immense burden for the family."

Post-trial events

In February 2016, a wooden bench was unveiled in Watts's memory, located in Goat's Field, close to her home. The bench, carved by Andy O'Neill, was funded by the Neighbourhood Watch Partnership. A painted mural was also erected in memory of Watts in a park close to where she lived. Becky - Bristol's Angel

In March 2016, Watts's father, Darren Galsworthy, released a memoir which described his daughter's life, her murder and the subsequent criminal trial of those responsible. Entitled ''Becky: The Heartbreaking Story of Becky Watts'', the book was published by

Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

. It was later re-titled to ''The Evil Within'' when released in paperback. Matthews and Hoare lodged appeals against their convictions and sentences, but on 23 June 2016, the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

rejected their applications, saying that there was "no reasonable argument that the convictions are unsafe or that the sentences were wrong in principle or manifestly excessive".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Becky 2010s in Bristol 2010s missing person cases 2015 in England 2015 murders in the United Kingdom February 2015 events in the United Kingdom Female murder victims Formerly missing people History of Bristol Murder in Bristol Incidents of violence against girls

Disappearance, investigation, body discovery and arrests

Trial, verdicts and sentencing

Post-trial events

See also

References