Becky Watts murder trial: Suspect wanted to ‘teach her a lesson’
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Version 0 of 1. The stepbrother of Becky Watts claimed he strangled her after a kidnap attempt to “scare her” went wrong, a court heard. In statements and interviews given almost two weeks after she vanished, Nathan Matthews, 28, said he brought a “large bag, a stun device, handcuffs, tape and mask” to her home in Bristol on 19 February. He claimed he planned to take Becky to a “wooded area” to “make her more appreciative of life”. He pounced on Becky in her bedroom. He told police he was wearing a mask, but he said it slipped and he panicked and strangled her. He made the claims in a prepared statement read to officers during an interview at 10.24pm on 2 March, which led them to her body parts. Matthews and his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, 21, were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Becky and later charged with her murder, which they both deny. Matthews said: “I came up with the idea to scare her. Like to try and basically make her more appreciative of life, like more appreciative of people, like she would be grateful that she had not been harmed. She would leave things out for my mum to trip over and talk to her like dirt on the floor. “I thought if I was able to scare her and she would not be harmed, when she got back she would have been scared and more appreciative of things. I would have stuck her in a suitcase. I would have put tape around her mouth so she would not make a noise. “I wanted to kidnap her to scare her and teach her a lesson. I believed she was selfish and believed her behaviour towards my mother was a risk to her health.” When asked about his idea to kidnap Becky, he said: “I don’t know if it was on TV or something like that but I had a couple of dreams.” He said he climbed the stairs and put his bag on the landing before knocking on Becky’s bedroom door as Hoare had a cigarette. He said: “I knocked on Rebecca’s door and she replied. She said ‘What?’ or ‘Hello’. I said: ‘Can I see you a minute?’ or similar words. Rebecca then opened the door. I’m wearing the mask. “I can’t be sure in what order things happened immediately after she came to the door, but I used the items to subdue Rebecca. During a short struggle my mask slipped and Rebecca was able to see my face. I panicked and strangled her.” He said he put her in a bag, zipped it up and put it in the boot of his car without Hoare knowing. He said he drove home and – again without Hoare knowing - brought Becky’s body in. “I took the body out of the bag and placed it in the bath,” he said. “In order to stop Shauna using the bathroom the following morning, I poured drain cleaner down the toilet so I could tell Shauna it was blocked again.” He said he then dismembered Becky’s body with a circular saw. Matthews claimed his previous denials were partly due to “a wish to avoid the pain and disappointment” it would cause to Hoare and his family. In an earlier interview on 28 February, Matthews described himself as an “emotionally unstable, psychologically disturbed, metrosexual Neanderthal”. Matthews admits the manslaughter of Becky, cutting up her body and possessing two stun guns. He denies conspiracy to kidnap and murder. Hoare has pleaded not guilty to any involvement in the plot to kidnap, the murder or the aftermath. The trial continues. |