Becky Watts: Another girl gone missing

Tony Bennett wrote:From one of the reports in the Daily Telegraph:

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A killer obsessed by violent teenage pornography has been convicted of murdering his 16-year-old stepsister in a case reigniting calls for tougher internet controls.

Becky Watts was killed on February 19th 2014.

Nathan Matthews is believed to have watched a film entitled "Virgin teen gets raped in own house" before he throttled 5ft 2in Becky Watts in her bedroom and then dismembered her body.

Police found a 17 minute pornographic film, which showed a victim being beaten up on her bed, among 236 images and 21 movies found on his laptop.

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Time after time after time we read of horrific acts, including murders, triggered by people watching violent videos. It's been proved over and over again that watching this stuff, whether on videos, the internet, the cinema or the TV, adversely influences many minds and often cause them to do terrible, terrible things to other people. 

We know that watching child sexual abuse on line - which apparently tens of thousands in the UK do every day - is the 'gateway' which then leads some people to commit horrific acts against children.

Yet the government, the internet service providers, the film and media industries refuse to address the issue, amidst cries of 'freedom of expression!' and 'censorship!'   


Small wonder, then, that the apostle Paul gave this advice to the Christian believers at Philippi:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

- Philippians 4 v 8

I know what you're saying Tony but I have to disagree. Much was made of the boys that killed Jamie Bulger being exposed to certain horror films and the possible effect it had on them. Sadly, there is a HUGE section of society for whom letting their kids watch and experience things they should be considered way to young for is quite normal. As is staying up to 3 or 4 in the morning playing inane violent video games. If videos and games had the effect which is claimed then surely such crimes would be much,  much more widespread. 

IMHO, the seed is already there in most of these individuals and such videos merely fuel the fire. Don't get me wrong - I do not endorse violent movies, games or pornography. I used to enjoy a good scary movie but these days find them unsettling. But there are many more factors responsible for creating these monsters.

I agree, nomendelta. I don't think that it was established if James Bulger's killers had even seen the violent videos mentioned - only that they might have done.

Pornography and violent material is I feel only a danger to individuals who are already damaged in some way.

Sorry @ ref; Becky Watts, I have removed part of your post in error - Tony Bennett 

ref; Becky Watts wrote:

One thing that can be proven is the often over usage of violent scenarios in games and films that show the violence used in the scenes and carnage for gratification reasons, yet fail to portray these actions on a human basis, that this is not real life that they are depicting, they never show the qualities of the human beings left in turmoil for years, never really able to come to the terms of what has happened in what they are portraying.

REPLY by Tony Bennett

Fully agreed.

But let's also look at the effect of an appalling background, as was the case with the girlfriend, Shauna Hoare.

As in so many other cases, being thrown into care by your mother and father and virtually abandoned gives you deep feelings of not being loved, and has a tendency to make one angry with the world. So it seems to have been in this case:

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QUOTE DAILY MAIL


The killer who was pregnant with twins: How Shauna Hoare fell under the spell of Nathan Matthews when she was just 14 and was expecting his children when he murdered Becky Watts 


* Shauna Hoare's disturbing childhood began when she was taken into care

* She was passed around six different foster families after mother remarried

* Her mother Lisa Donovan has seven other children with three different men

* It is unclear how involved Hoare's Irish father Ernest was in her young life

* Hoare was later to fall under the spell of Nathan Matthews at the age of 14 

* It later emerged that Hoare was pregnant with his twins at the time of killing

by Sam Tonkin For Mailonline

Published: 18:54, 11 November 2015 | Updated: 22:37, 11 November 2015 


POC: Face of a killer: Shauna Hoare first met Nathan Matthews when she was 14, a year after moving back in with her mother having spent much of her childhood bouncing between different foster homes


Bounced from foster home to foster home, Shauna Hoare's childhood was a dysfunctional and disturbing one that began when her mother remarried soon after she was born.

Before she had even reached school age, Hoare found herself taken into care and later brought up by six different foster families.

She maintained contact with her mother, Lisa Donovan, who had seven other children with three different men, but the pair would later become estranged as a controlling Nathan Matthews ramped up his grooming of the teenager.

How involved Hoare's Irish father Ernest was in her young life is unclear. He himself remarried in 2003 and had two more children in addition to the four he and Ms Donovan had together.

When she turned 13, Hoare moved back in with Ms Donovan in Bristol, but the two lost contact four years later and remained estranged until the former turned up on her mother's doorstep days after Becky's death.

Matthews was later to reveal in a police interview that Hoare was pregnant with his twins when she became a killer. She is no longer pregnant.

While living with her mother, Hoare went to The Grange School in Keynsham and once claimed that on her way to school one morning she was the victim of a horrific attack.

A promiscuous teenager, Ms Donovan told how her 15-year-old daughter was made to do sexual favours for Matthews.

He would make sexual comments and insist on the favours if Hoare asked him for anything, her mother revealed.

Ms Donovan said Matthews was 'controlling and flirty with everyone, sexually oriented, very overpowering'. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3314269/Passed-six-foster-families-falling-spell-Matthews-aged-just-14-Shauna-Hoare-pregnant-twins-killer.html#ixzz3rHFvukYp 
  

I listened to an interesting discussion of this case on Jeremy Vine, Radio 2 today, describing it as a Folie a Deux, or a shared madness.

It does seem like a shared madness - there are many people who are fostered by numerous people and have all sorts of horrible/frightening things happen to them but they don't all turn into cold blooded killers.

What about the person who helped them "dispose" of the body  - given a few hundred pounds and booked a holiday with it - shared madness indeed.

I do think that the violence on tv and internet is partly to blame too plus lenient sentencing, letting people out on day release etc. etc. 

How often have we read about the likes of Brady, Hindley, Rose West and all the others having a "good" life in prison, tv's, smokes, very well fed to the point that (I think) West is so fat she is unrecognisable.  Plus a never ending supply of drugs if they want them.

Does the word deterrent even exist any longer in Britain?  I don't think so.

Sentencing tomorrow, life for him, 20 years for her?  I wasn't aware until reading the reports yesterday that she was pregnant with twins at the time of the murder.  Let's hope that those children have better lives and outcomes than their parents.

What a sickening, brutal end for Becky Watts.

Anyone know if the girl's 17 year sentence is a minimum amount, or is it parole at half-way? None of the reports clarify this, quite poor reporting.
In fact, most of the reports are a word for word clone of each other.

Becky Watts's father to write memoir about daughter's murder
Darren Galsworthy’s book to describe family life before teenager was murdered by her stepbrother, Nathan Matthews, and his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare


Darren Galsworthy (l) outside Bristol crown court after his stepson, Nathan Matthews, was found guilty of murdering Becky. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Friday 22 January 2016 17.28 GMT Last modified on Friday 22 January 2016 17.30 GMT

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.

A terrible end to a young life.  However, I don't see this book selling well.