Nathan Mattehews describes the horrific way he killed stepsister Becky watts

Nathan Matthews, 28, claimed he ­accidentally suffocated the 16-year-old when his plot to kidnap her went wrong.

The man accused of murdering his step-sister Becky Watts sobbed as he told a court how he cut up her body and struggled with mental illness.

Nathan Matthews, 28, claimed he ­accidentally suffocated the 16-year-old when his plot to kidnap her went wrong.

And the former Territorial Army soldier told the jury he suffered from anxiety and anger issues, saying: “I get overwhelmed.

“If I am shown violence, then I will show it back. You don’t corner a rat in the corner because they attack.”


But he insisted he had “never threatened” the ­teenager – despite her friend Courtney Bicker telling Bristol crown court Becky had said he spoke of “ripping out someone’s toenails”.

Matthews broke down in tears while reliving how he killed Becky on February 19 in Bristol.

He said, without ­pregnant lover Shauna Hoare knowing, he had knocked on Becky’s bedroom door.


He was wearing a white, full-face mask and carrying a stun gun, Sellotape, silver handcuffs and a red suitcase.

Matthews said that 5ft 1in Becky got down on her knees and he placed the handcuffs on her.




He told the court : “When I started putting her in the suitcase – that’s when she started wriggling, resisting.”

Matthews said he put tape over her eyes, punched her, and used a playground trick “like strangling” to make her pass out.

But he added: “Something didn’t seem right because she was not breathing. I checked for a pulse and she didn’t have a pulse.”


Matthews then put her body in the boot of his ­Vauxhall Zafira and claimed Hoare, 21, was oblivious to what had gone on when they drove home.

The next day he bought an £80 circular saw and chopped up Becky’s body .

He offered a pal £10,000 to hide ­suitcases containing the body parts in a garden shed, where Becky’s remains were found 11 days later.


Matthews, a delivery driver, said he hatched the kidnap plot to scare Becky because she treated his mum Anjie “like dirt”.

Matthews, of Warmley, Glos, denies murder and ­plotting to kidnap but admits manslaughter.

Hoare, from Bristol, denies murder, ­plotting to kidnap, perverting justice, preventing burial and possessing an ­offensive weapon.

The trial continues.