Becky Watts's father to write memoir about daughter's murder

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/22/becky-wattss-father-to-write-memoir-about-daughters

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The father of the murdered teenager Becky Watts is to write a memoir presenting the “truth” behind his daughter’s relationship with the stepbrother who killed her.

Darren Galsworthy’s book will tell of his devastation at facing up to the fact that his stepson, Nathan Matthews, suffocated Becky, 16, before dismembering and hiding her body in a suitcase.

The 304-page memoir, titled Becky, will describe their family life before her murder in their Bristol home last February, and what the schoolgirl’s relationship with her stepbrother was “really like”.

Galsworthy said it would also dwell on the horror of finding out that his daughter had been killed by Matthews, a child who he had raised as his own son, who had been best man at his wedding and was somebody he trusted.

Matthews, 28, was found guilty of killing the schoolgirl and given a life sentence, serving a minimum of 33 years, while his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, was jailed for 17 years for manslaughter. Watts’s killing was described by the prosecution as sexually motivated and was carried out after the pair’s kidnapping plan went wrong.

Speaking after the guilty verdict was delivered in November last year, Galsworthy said he and his wife Anjie, Matthews’ mother, had been through hell.

HarperNonFiction, who will publish the book, described the memoir as “heartfelt and powerfully affecting” and said it was a poignant way for Galsworthy to pay tribute to his daughter.

The description adds: “Darren recalls with enduring love the daughter he fought so hard to get custody of after she was taken into foster care as an infant, and the happy, innocent child who completed his life.” The book will be published on 3 March, exactly a year on from the date that Watts’s remains were found.

Galsworthy, 52, said he was writing the book both for himself and his wife. “I want people to know what Becky was really like – she was big-hearted, fearless and incredibly generous,” he said. “On behalf of myself and my wife, Anjie, I also want to tell the full story of what we have been through as a family.

“Becky was loved unconditionally and her life was cruelly taken from her in the most horrific way - by somebody we all trusted.”

Vicky Eribo, editorial director for HarperNonFiction, said it was a case that shocked the nation and so was important that Galsworthy’s story was heard. She said: “Throughout the trial Darren and his family were praised by the judge for their incredible dignity in the circumstances.

“In this haunting book Darren brings the same unflinching honesty and integrity to every word he writes about his daughter.”

Matthews and Hoare have both appealed against their convictions, though the court of appeal has yet to decide whether to accept their applications.