Becky

by Darren Galsworthy

  At the end of June, Ziggy got back in touch, calling me at work to say that she had some news. She asked if she and Jo could pop over that evening.

  When they arrived, I eyed them warily. I was so used to getting bad news, I was worried they would tell us that the charges had been dropped. That was my worst fear.

  ‘What do you need to tell us, then?’ I asked as they sat down.

  ‘We just wanted to give you an update on Shauna,’ Ziggy answered. ‘As you know, she was originally charged with perverting the course of justice, but she’s now been charged with murder as well. She’ll stand trial with Nathan on the same charge.’

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  ‘It’s about time,’ I said, looking across at Anjie. She looked relieved too. We both suspected that Shauna had a lot to do with what happened. It didn’t seem likely to us that Nathan had managed it all on his own. Shauna seemed more ruthless than him, and I’d long thought she was the smarter of the two.

  Ziggy explained that they both faced further charges in relation to Becky’s death: perverting the course of justice, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, possession of a prohibited weapon, and preventing her lawful burial.

  ‘What was the weapon?’ I asked, but Ziggy shook her head.

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.’

  Although we now knew the charges, we still didn’t know much about what they meant and what had actually happened on the day Becky died. I wasn’t happy about the lack of information because I’d thought we would know a lot more by this point. I wanted to feel prepared for the trial, but the police still weren’t allowed to give us many details.

  Anjie and I remained very nervous about the court case. To be honest, I didn’t have much faith in the legal system. I was also worried that the truth about Becky’s death, and the knowledge of what Nathan and Shauna had done to her, would destroy me.

  I lay awake night after night worrying that they might be found not guilty for some reason or another, even though Nathan had admitted it. I knew that my family would be on hand to support me throughout, but there was no doubt that it was going to be incredibly difficult. I promised myself that, whatever happened, I wouldn’t get too emotional inside the courtroom. I wanted to remain composed. Most of all, I didn’t want Nathan to see me crumble.

  Meanwhile, I was saving money for Becky to have a nice headstone. She just had a wooden cross, a little picket fence and flowers covering her grave at first. It looked pretty, but I was keen to get her a proper headstone, and the one I’d chosen didn’t come cheap. It was really special, though: black speckled marble with baby-blue chippings on the top. It came complete with little plant pots and a polished biblical figurine attached. The figurine was what grabbed me, because the child was clinging onto the woman by wrapping her arms around her shoulders and neck, just as Becky used to do with Anjie. I was sure that she would have liked it.

  I also bought the plot next to her grave, so that Anjie or I – whoever died first – could be buried next to her. Sarah bought the plot one along from that.

  While Anjie and I rattled around in our empty house and tried to prepare ourselves for the trial, our supporters were putting together a plan to set up a foundation in Becky’s name. The aim was to provide emotional and financial support for the loved ones of missing children. I liked the idea of launching a charity to help people through those dark, desperate times. We wouldn’t have survived without the unparalleled support from our community. I thought it was a good opportunity to keep Becky’s name alive. It would be one small positive thing to come from her death.

  Our supporters had always used the slogan ‘Shoulder 2 Shoulder’ when helping us search for her and while fundraising for the funeral. We decided that this message would be at the very core of any charity set up in Becky’s name.

  There were other touching acts of kindness too, which we appreciated. They provided some small comfort amid the grim torment.

  People raised money to pay for a lamppost in St George’s Park in memory of Becky. She had walked through that park many times, and it was lovely to think of her light helping to keep other people safe as they passed through after dark.

  Others planted an apple tree in Becky’s honour. It was one of five planted by Meadow Vale Community Association in tribute to Becky and four other teenagers – Shevon Wilson, Daniel Cockram, Jacob Seaman Ind and Zoe Smith – who had died in tragic circumstances in Bristol. Anjie and I felt humbled as we attended the ceremony in the park behind the Meadow Vale Community Centre in the Speedwell area of the city. We were able to find a certain peace and give mutual support by coming together with other grieving families.

  After the planting ceremony, Reverend David James individually blessed the trees and said a prayer for each family. He had become a big part of our lives over the past few months, a source of strength and comfort, and his words will stay with me forever. Although the emotions were still very raw, it was a touching occasion for Anjie and me. As time passes, no doubt we’ll go back to that tree many times to think about Becky and all that she achieved in her young life.

  I worked full-time until the end of September, when I fell ill with a bad dose of flu. My body completely packed in, so my family rallied around us once again, helping to look after both Anjie and me. Soon after I recovered, it was time for Nathan and Shauna’s trial to begin, so my bosses told me to take as much time off as I needed. I really appreciated their continuing support. I was incredibly lucky to have such understanding employers at that time.

  Though despair and grief had left me feeling weaker than ever, the hope of some kind of justice was enough to shake me from my numb lethargy. I reached inside myself for whatever strength remained, picked myself back up and did my best to prepare for the horrors that I knew lay ahead in the courtroom.

  Chapter 13

  The trial begins

  The night before the first day of the trial was a restless one. I tried to get to bed early in order to prepare myself mentally, but it was no use – I had too many things circling my mind to sleep. By the time the sun came up on 6 October 2015, I was feeling sick with nerves. I got dressed, looked intently at my reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath. I promised myself again that, however hard it got, I wouldn’t show any emotion in front of Nathan. I wasn’t going to let him see me crumble, even though I knew it would be difficult setting eyes on him again.

  ‘Are you going to be all right today, my love?’ I asked Anjie as I helped her get dressed. ‘It’s going to be hard seeing Nathan and Shauna. You don’t have to come if it’s too much for you.’

  Anjie nodded determinedly. ‘I’m going,’ she replied.

  I know Anjie wanted to see Nathan; after all, she had been denied the opportunity after he was charged. She wanted to see if he would have the courage to look her in the eyes after admitting to killing Becky. I knew that, like me, she needed to know exactly what had happened.

  I felt drained as Ziggy and Jo came to collect Anjie and me. They decided to drive us in the back way, as journalists and photographers were already gathered at the entrance of Bristol Crown Court, hoping to catch a glimpse of us. Tanya and Pat would also enter the court through the back entrance, while Sarah, Sam and the rest of the family walked in through the front.

  I had never been to a trial before, so I wasn’t sure how everything would work or how long it would last. We had originally been told that it could take up to eleven weeks, and I didn’t think I could last that long to find out if justice was going to be served. Luckily, the estimate was shortened to five to six weeks.

  In the car, Ziggy explained that we would be briefed each morning by the prosecutor, William Mousely, on the agenda for the day.

  ‘You’ll be given a short outline of what will be said,’ she told us. ‘But it won’t be all the information. Be aware that things will often come out in court that you won’t expect and may find hard to listen to. If that happens, try not to attract any attention to yourself or to
interrupt proceedings. You can leave the courtroom at any time if you feel that you need a break.’

  I swallowed hard. Although I was desperate to know what had happened to Becky, I knew that it was going to be agonising to sit there listening. I was determined not to let my anger get the better of me and shout out; whatever happened, I would maintain my dignity.

  The whole family decided before the trial to wear something to show that we were a united front, so we all pinned baby-blue ribbons to our lapels. It was also a mark of respect for Becky, choosing her favourite colour once more.

  We met everyone in the witness-protection area of the court, and as soon as Sarah clocked me she rushed over, Sam by her side.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked, putting her hand on my arm.

  ‘On edge, Sar, I must admit,’ I croaked. It all seemed much more real and serious now that we were actually in the court. She nodded and looked at Anjie, who was sitting in her wheelchair, staring straight ahead. Her face gave away how nervous she was, so I put a reassuring arm around her.

  ‘It’s the fear of the unknown, isn’t it?’ Sarah said, squeezing my arm. ‘We’ll get through this as a family, Dar, I promise.’ She gave me a hug, and soon we were being called to our first briefing.

  That day turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax, as it was dominated by legal arguments. Pretty much all I really remember is meeting William Mousely for the first time and thinking to myself that he was the man who was going to get justice for my Becky and put away those two evil pieces of filth. First impressions were good: he looked and sounded like a man who knew what he was doing. I felt a brief surge of confidence, although it soon gave way to the usual nerves, doubts and apprehension.

  We were told that the following day would be the official start of the trial, the day the jury would be sworn in. We were also told that when the prosecution opened its case at the beginning of the trial, they would give a brief summary of the crime. All the information would be explored in detail as the trial progressed, but some of it would be new to us. We knew very little about the actual circumstances of Becky’s death, probably because we were deemed to be too close to the man who admitted he had ended her life. What unsettled me was that the only people who really knew what happened to Becky that day were Nathan and Shauna. They held all the cards.

  Every day I attended, I sat in the family gallery, which was big enough to accommodate eight people. On the first day, Anjie and I were joined by Tanya and Pat, Ziggy and Jo, and Sarah. Tanya and I were civil to each other, each asking the other how they were doing; we were united now in our desire to get justice for Becky. Danny came often during the course of the trial, and I was impressed by his strength in listening to the evidence. Like me, he was determined not to let Nathan see him break down. Anjie only came to court a handful of times; her MS meant that just a day away from home would exhaust her, and the stress of listening to the information we were due to hear was likely to have a huge impact on her condition.

  Other family members joined us when there was space, but otherwise they sat in the public gallery, which was also full of people who had supported us throughout the search and funeral – people who wanted justice for Becky. As well as Sam and Sarah, my dad and Denise were often there, my brothers Joe and Asa, and my stepbrother Ben. The media interest in the trial was so great that a video link was being streamed to a separate annex inside the building to accommodate the scores of journalists reporting on the case.

  On the second day of the trial, 7 October, Anjie was too exhausted to come, so Sarah, Sam, Joe and my dad came to support me. Once the jury – eleven women and one man – were sworn in, the four defendants due to face trial were led to the dock. Nathan and Shauna were joined by Donovan Demetrius and James Ireland, who were both charged with assisting an offender.

  We were told that Donovan’s twin brother, Karl Demetrius, and his girlfriend, Jaydene Parsons, had already pleaded guilty to the same charge at an earlier hearing. They admitted assisting Nathan by storing Becky’s remains in their shed, but claimed that they didn’t know what the packages contained. It was alleged that Karl Demetrius and James Ireland had driven Becky’s body parts to Karl’s house after Nathan promised them money to help him move some packages. Donovan Demetrius was staying with Karl at the time, but he claimed to know nothing of the criminal activity.

  I craned my neck to get a good view of Nathan and Shauna, but it was difficult. The defendants had a huge screen protecting them, and they were sitting behind James Ireland and Donovan Demetrius. The dock was also full of security guards who blocked my view. It was probably just as well; I didn’t trust myself not to explode with rage the second I set eyes on them.

  There was a hushed silence as William Mousely opened the case for the prosecution. I closed my eyes tightly and held my breath. I knew that what we were about to hear would not be easy.

  He started: ‘Rebecca Watts, known to all as Becky, aged sixteen, was killed in her bedroom. She was suffocated, despite fighting for her life. There followed a deliberate, carefully planned and grotesquely executed plan to cover up her killing.

  ‘Following her removal from her home, her body was cut up with a knife and a power saw, the parts carefully packaged and then moved to another address to prevent them being found, and to prevent them being lawfully buried.’

  As William addressed the courtroom, I was vaguely aware of Tanya getting up from her seat behind me and walking out. She obviously found it too upsetting to listen to the gory details. I tried to remain composed. Even though I couldn’t see Nathan, I wasn’t entirely sure he couldn’t see me, and I was determined not to break down with him watching.

  ‘Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare were responsible for her death,’ William added sharply. ‘And that cover-up was assisted by four others, including James Ireland and Donovan Demetrius, all acting together and who, to varying degrees, helped in the hiding of her by-now disguised remains, in the knowledge that she had been killed or that some other significant offence had been committed by Nathan Matthews.’

  He paused for a moment, and looked around the room before refocusing on the jury members.

  ‘Becky’s death was the result of a plan by Matthews and Hoare to kidnap her, and it seems that items may have been taken to Becky’s home by them to carry out that plan,’ he said. ‘In addition to their apparent dislike of Rebecca Watts, there is good reason to believe there was also a sexual motive behind the scheme, arising from a shared unnatural interest in attractive teenage females, and that a foreseeable conclusion to that plan being carried out would be either Becky’s death or serious injury.’

  My stomach lurched as I took in the words ‘sexual motive’. What possible sexual motive could Nathan have for attacking Becky? He had known her since she was a toddler. It made me feel sick to my stomach. Had he been sexually abusing her? Surely she would have told us if that were the case?

  Continuing with the evidence, William said: ‘Becky went home in the early morning of 19 February to Crown Hill, St George, Bristol. Her last phone contact was during the morning, when she sent a text message to a friend from her home, where she was alone.

  ‘Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare had visited 18 Crown Hill on the morning of 19 February. When asked by the police, they both lied by saying they had heard but not seen Becky at the address on their visit and had heard the front door slam, as if Becky had gone out, and that her whereabouts were as unknown to them as to anyone else. As a result of Becky’s blood being found on doorframes outside her bedroom, some of which contained Nathan Matthews’ fingerprints, Matthews and Hoare were arrested for kidnap. These arrests later became arrests for murder.’

  He added that the police investigation had uncovered two stun guns at their home, which may have been intended for use in the planned kidnap. They had been ordered in the name of Shauna Phillips, as Hoare had once been known, in January 2015.

  My stomach knotted tightly and I felt Sarah’s hand reaching for mine. I glanced at h
er and saw that she was as white as a sheet. Shauna had ordered those stun guns a month before Becky was murdered. It was beginning to sound as though the pair of them had been carefully planning her murder all that time.

  The court heard that, on the morning of Becky’s death, Nathan and Shauna had driven to our home, stopping off at a Tesco Express on the way to buy some batteries, which Mr Mousley suggested were for a stun gun.

  He said that Becky had died at some point between 11 a.m. and the early afternoon (Anjie had returned from her hospital appointment at 12.45 p.m.), and her body was put in the boot of Nathan’s car. CCTV footage showed Nathan and Shauna driving to their home shortly before 7 p.m.

  I felt a wave of nausea as I realised that I had walked past Nathan’s car when I got home from work that day. Without knowing it, I had walked past the dead body of my little girl. I started shaking violently, and Sarah squeezed my hand in an attempt to calm me down.

  When they arrived home, Nathan and Shauna ordered a Chinese takeaway before settling down to watch television for the night.

  ‘All normal behaviour, other than having a dead body on their hands,’ William said, looking at the dock accusingly. I hoped that he had a better view of them than I did.

  William then explained how Becky’s body parts were discovered at a house in Barton Hill, where Karl Demetrius and Jaydene Parsons lived. He said that Karl and another man, James Ireland, had helped to transport her body parts and items used in her dismemberment – four days after she was killed. Donovan Demetrius was staying with his brother, Karl, at the time, and was present when they arrived.

  William then said something that made rage surge through my body.

  ‘Nathan Matthews finally admitted to the killing, stating that he had tried to kidnap and imprison Becky and that he had strangled her,’ he told the court. ‘He said that he had acted alone in the killing, the removal of her body from Becky’s house to his home, the subsequent dismemberment, and in arranging the removal of her body parts.’