Becky Watts

**Rebecca Marie "Becky" Watts** (June 3, 1998 - February 19, 2015) was a British student from Bristol who was murdered in 2015 at the age of 16.

## Events

### Backstory

Becky Marie Watts was a 16-year-old student from Crown Hill in the St. George area of Bristol, England. When Becky started primary school she was so shy that she wouldn’t let her stepmother leave her there on her own, so she ended up being an unpaid teaching assistant for four years. When she was older, Becky became a mentor for younger children as she couldn't bear for them to feel alone like she had at that age.

Becky was bullied at secondary school about her weight and, consequently, the family almost lost her to anorexia. Gradually building up confidence, she started to go out more and more and became really fashion conscious, developing her own style and always looked immaculate. Becky loved music and animals and going to the cinema with her small group of friends.

### Disappearance

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 sufferer, who left the house at around 11:15 A.M for a hospital appointment. She 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. An online campaign using the hashtag "#FindBecky" was launched on social media, reaching more than two million people worldwide.

### Investigation

Police searches focused on a number of properties in Barton Hill, Southmead, 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, Trym Valley and Badock's Wood.

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.

### Arrests

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.

### Trial

The murder trial began on 6 October 2015 at Bristol Crown Court. It was the prosecution'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 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 manslaughter, 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".

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.

### Sentencing

On 13 November 2015, Justice Dingemans sentenced Matthews to life imprisonment 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."

Matthews and Hoare lodged appeals against their convictions and sentences, but on 23 June 2016, the Court of Appeal 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".

## News

*For news articles on Becky Watts, see here.*

## External links

* Murder of Becky Watts • Wikipedia
* Rebecca Marie “Becky” Watts • Find a Grave

## In popular media

### Literature

* Becky: The Heartbreaking Story of Becky Watts by Her Father Darren Galsworthy (10 March 2016)

### Podcasts

* Casefile: True Crime: Case 99 - Becky Watts (10 November 2018)

### Television

* Becky Watts: Killed For Kicks (18 October 2017)
* Beyond Evil: The Murder of Becky Watts (17 April 2018)