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Trial
Becky Watts died by strangulation before her body was cut up with a saw
A Bristol court was told yesterday that her stepbrother Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare killed the teenager at her home.
THE STEPBROTHER of Becky Watts, the 16-year-old who was murdered in February of this year, has admitted killing his stepsister but denies charges of murder.
Sky News reports that yesterday, a Bristol court was told that Nathan Matthews, 28, and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 22, killed the teenager by suffocation through strangulation in her bedroom at her home.
The jury was told that her body was later put in their car and brought to Matthews and Hoare’s home.
The Guardian reports that CCTV footage showed Matthews and Hoare driving to their home that evening with a child sitting in the rear of the car.
The couple ordered a takeaway and browsed television schedules on a phone.
“All apparently normal behaviour, other than the fact they had a dead body on their hands,” the prosecutor said.
It was in their home that her body was allegedly cut up with a saw and hidden in boxes in a nearby shed.
The Guardian reports that members of Becky’s family sobbed and one had to leave the courtroom as details were heard of how parts of her body were found in a shed, some parts encased in layers of plastic and salt.
The jury heard DNA associated with Hoare was found on the inside of a safety mask and on the inside of a knot in a bag used to wrap up Becky’s remains.
The court was told that Becky had suffered 15 stab wounds to her abdomen after she died and she had also been struck in the neck with a screwdriver.
The jury was told that Matthew and Hoare carried out the sexually motivated murder as they both had an interest in teenage girls.
The day after the murder, Matthews allegedly went to a local B&Q store where he purchased a circular saw, goggles, gloves and a face mask.
Matthews even queried the price of the saw before purchase.
The jury was also shown video footage of the pair shopping for items including bleach, rubble sacks, rubber gloves and cling film that were allegedly used to conceal the body and clean up the bathroom where the dismembering is said to have taken place.
Prosecutor William Mousley QC said the pair followed a “deliberate, carefully planned and grotesquely executed plan to cover up her killing”.
Police said Matthews told them 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.
There was a wide-scale search for Watts which lasted for 11 days after she was reported missing in February.
Nathan Matthew denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap. 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 charge.
The trial continues.
The comments have been turned off on this article as court proceedings are ongoing.
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