Becky Watts's stepbrother has told jurors of the moment he inadvertently killed the 16-year-old as he tried to handcuff her and force the schoolgirl into a suitcase during a botched kidnap attempt.
Nathan Matthews claimed he tried to make the teenager pass out by using a grip he said was 'like strangling' but which 'doesn’t completely restrict the air', as Becky desperately fought for her life.
The 28-year-old then told how 'something didn't feel right', adding: 'I checked for a pulse and she didn’t have a pulse.'
Taking to the witness box on the first day of his defence, Matthews described how he put on a mask and knocked on the schoolgirl's bedroom door before wrapping Sellotape around her mouth and trying to force her into a suitcase when she answered.
Matthews said he put handcuffs on Becky when she got down on her knees but then punched her and put his fingers on her nose to 'make her pass out' when the teenager began resisting.
Matthews (pictured) and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, are on trial for murder at Bristol Crown Court
In tears: The stepbrother of murdered teenager Becky Watts, Nathan Matthews (pictured in a court sketch), has told jurors of the moment he killed the 16-year-old during what he claims was a botched kidnap attempt
'The last thing I did was to try and make her pass out which is something we did at school - it’s like strangling but it doesn’t completely restrict the air,' he told jurors at Bristol Crown Court.
'People at school would pass out - some would take a minute, some would take 15 or 20 seconds at a guess.
'Then after that she stopped kicking. I moved her head and moved her legs and tried to position her in the suitcase. Then I picked up all the other bits.
'Something didn’t seem right with her breathing because she was not breathing.
'Normally it would be a deep breath and then nothing for five seconds - but I couldn’t hear any breathing.
'I checked for a pulse and she didn’t have a pulse.'
The former admitted taking two stun guns, a pair of silver handcuffs and a face mask with him to Becky’s house on February 19 this year but insisted he never meant to kill the schoolgirl.
He said his intention had been to 'shock and scare' Becky in retaliation for the way she treated his mother.
Anjie Galsworthy, who the jury heard had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years earlier, had gone to hospital for an appointment on the day Matthews carried out his botched kidnapping attempt.
When asked why he didn't go straight to police he said he 'didn’t want anybody to know what actually happened' because of 'the panic of everybody finding out and being hurt'.
He added: 'Everything happened really quickly.'
Matthews said he had put on a deeper voice so Becky would not know it was him.
He told jurors: 'I knocked on her door. I don't know exactly what I said or even if I said anything.
'The door was opened and straight away I used the Sellotape around Becky's mouth. She turned around and I think I said something along the lines of: "As long as you do as you're told you are going to be fine".
'She got down onto her knees and I got the handcuffs. I put the handcuffs on her hands, from behind.
Matthews (pictured alongside his girlfriend Shauna Hoare) said he never meant to kill the 16-year-old but later admitted to having anger issues, telling the jury: 'If you corner a rat, then you will attack'
'When she was on her knees I told her to keep her eyes shut. I was getting her into the suitcase when my mask slipped and my hands went over her eyes and I took the mask off and Sellotaped over her eyes.
'That's when I said she needed to bend her legs to get her into the suitcase.'
Matthews said Becky did not resist him and did not try and fight him off, until he tried putting her in the suitcase.
'That's when she started like wriggling and resisting. That's when ... that's when I got my fingers on her nose,' he said.
'To restrict her breathing, so that she would pass out. I put my hand on top of the Sellotape but that didn't work because she was still managing to breath.
'I remember putting more Sellotape to connect the eyes to the mouth parts because she was wriggling.
'Then I tried getting her back into the suitcase and saying: "Don't struggle, you will be released unharmed" and she was still refusing to get into the suitcase.
'Then I thought to make her pass out I thought of knocking her out. I remember punching her just once and that was obviously not something I felt comfortable with trying to do it that way because there would be a lot of violence and pain.'
Matthews told the jury that he tried to make Becky lose consciousness by doing something he had learned in school by using his hands to restrict the blood flow to her head.
'Obviously after that she stopped ... stopped kicking,' he said.
'That's when I moved her head and started moving her legs and pushing her into the suitcase.'
As Matthews described the moment he killed his stepsister, her aunt Sarah Broom left the court in tears followed by Becky's uncle Sam Galsworthy.
Matthews' mother also cried throughout and was comforted by Becky's father Darren Galsworthy.
'The only way I can explain it was that something stood out and something didn't seem right with her breathing,' Matthews said.
'What I would say that normally it was a deep breath and then it would be nothing, a couple of seconds - up to five seconds - and then it would be the same thing again, a deep breath.
'I remember I couldn't hear any breathing, that's when something's not right and I checked her for a pulse.'
Matthews claimed he tried to make the schoolgirl pass out by using a grip he said was 'like strangling' but which 'doesn’t completely restrict the air', as Becky desperately fought for her life
Hoare and Matthews (pictured in a court sketch giving evidence) are on trial accused of murdering nine-stone Becky after plotting to kidnap her to satisfy their shared ‘unnatural interest’ in petite teenage girls
Fighting back tears, Matthews told how Becky didn't have a pulse, before adding: 'Obviously then I shut the suitcase.'
The court heard it took between five and ten minutes from the time Matthews killed Becky to him putting her body in the boot of his car.
He then returned to the house and met his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, who is also on trial for murder, as she went back inside from the garden having smoked a cigarette.
Matthews said he slammed the front door a couple of times so Hoare would think it was Becky going out, having also put his stepsister's phone, laptop and make-up into a black bag 'to make it look like she had just gone off somewhere.'
He added: 'I told myself to act normal. I didn’t actually know what to do.'
Matthews sat on the sofa and was still at the house, along with Hoare, when his mother returned from the hospital later that day.
Jurors heard the couple drove home shortly after 7pm with the suitcase still in the boot of the car.
Matthews said: 'I didn’t tell Shauna, I wanted to hide it from her.
'Sometime that night or in the early hours of the morning I decided to dismember Becky’s body.
'I bought drain cleaner to dissolve the body but that didn’t work.
'I took the suitcase into the house the same day. After Shauna fell asleep I moved the suitcase into the front room.
'There wasn’t a lot of room - it was in the early hours of the morning.'
The court heard Matthews went to B&Q and bought a circular saw, mask and gloves and goggles the day after the killing.
He then drove back home, emptied the suitcase and put Becky's body in the bath.
At that point Matthews said he cut Becky’s clothes with scissors 'so they didn’t get caught up in the saw', before dismembering her body with the shower curtain behind his back.
Matthews based his method of disposing of Becky's body on 'a film or an episode of CSI'
The court also heard how Matthews based his method of disposing of Becky's body on gritty crime dramas he had watched on television.
Asked about the stab wounds to her stomach, he said he inflicted them to let out body fluids, inspired by a film or episode of the TV crime show CSI.
'I did [stabbed her],' he said.
'I don't know obviously if it was a film or CSI but I heard somewhere about the body when it dies it expands.
'I did it to you know get rid of the body fluids.'
Asked about his state of mind, he said: 'I just did it. I did it. It was just surreal.
'I was doing what I had to do to protect everybody else finding out what had happened, that she was gone.'
Matthews, 28, admitted having a plan to kidnap Becky but insisted his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, (pictured left during her police interview and right) who is also on trial for murder, was not part of it
On trial: Matthews (pictured in his own police interview) began his defence at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday
He said he packaged the body parts so they 'couldn't be found' and told Hoare not to go into the bathroom because the toilet was blocked, he said.
Matthews said she was annoyed because it had happened on several occasions previously and it meant both toilets were out of use at their home.
He told the court he offered Karl Demetrius £10,000 for his help moving items and storing them, and chose him because 'he didn't know anyone else'.
He said it took him, Demetrius and James Ireland two trips to get the body parts into the van, before they were unloaded into the house.
The former delivery driver said he told the men not to look in the boxes, and watched as Demetrius and Ireland put them into the shed.
He added another bag, a rucksack, the next day and promised to collect it in a few days.
Asked for his plan onwards, he said: 'I tried to think of a plan, drive them out to the sea or something, but I didn't know.'
Matthews said it was never part of the plan to hurt Becky and said: 'The whole point, although it was a drastic thing, it was to get a good outcome.
'Obviously with what happened that's not a good outcome.'
Earlier the 28-year-old broke down in tears after taking to the witness box to begin his defence.
He said he spent two months thinking about kidnapping Becky but insisted Hoare was not part of the plan.
Matthews said he was not '100 per cent sure' what to do with the packages containing Becky's body parts.
'I couldn't think of anything that would actually work,' he added.
He used cat litter and salt in the packages to absorb smells and to act as preservatives, the court heard.
Becky's family soon became anxious after the teenager failed to return home or get in touch with friends.
Matthews said: 'I was just trying to think of a way to protect them from the truth so they would think that Becky is fine, she's happy.
'Send a letter, log into her Facebook, a text message, that kind of thing but obviously I broke the phone so I couldn't do that.
'Obviously with the police investigation and everything there was no way of me being able to do that.
'I didn't want them to know the truth because obviously the truth is going to be more hurtful than thinking she has just left, she has left with someone or gone off with another boyfriend.
'I wasn't prepared for any of that so I didn't have a proper thought out plan.'
When asked if he intended to murder Becky or cause her serious harm, Matthews said: 'No I didn’t', wiping tears from his eyes and resting his head on his arms as he gave the answer.
However, Matthews later admitted to having anger issues, telling the jury: 'If you corner a rat, then you will attack.'
Appearing at Bristol Crown Court today, Matthews said of his kidnap attempt: 'I was going to scare Becky.
'I’d had thoughts for a couple of months, on and off.'
He told how he had gone to Becky’s home in his car with a red suitcase, inside which he had a mask, handcuffs, tape and a black refuse bag.
Matthews said the kidnap plot was motivated by the way Becky treated his mother Anjie Galsworthy.
'My plan was to get her in the suitcase and get her in the car and drive off - I hadn’t decided exactly which of the locations I had thought of,' he added.
'Obviously get her back out, obviously tell her "You have got to treat people better".
Asked why he devised the kidnap plan, Matthews said: 'Just the way she treated my mum and the fact with the trip hazards, my mum would have fallen over in the house, severely injured.
'She talked at her like dirt and ordered her to do things.'
Matthews said he spoke to both his mother and Becky's father about her.
'Darren was angry that she didn't listen and she was kicked out a couple of times for her behaviour and the way she treated people,' he told jurors.
'I know she had Darren under a massive amount of stress and he stopped eating and sleeping and he was under a massive amount of stress because he was worried he would go to jail because she stopped going to school.
'She didn't find it funny but it was like a way of punishing her dad. She didn't laugh about it, entertaining isn't the right word, I don't know the right word to use.'
Matthews added: 'It seems extreme but there had to be a shock and a scare to get through to her.
'I had seen on TV programmes where they had done similar things where there is a prank.'
He said he had bought the two stun guns himself on the internet for £18 using his mobile phone, not realising they were illegal.
Matthews's mother and Becky's stepmother, Anjie Galsworthy, was pictured being pushed in her wheelchair by Becky's father Darren Galsworthy as the pair arrived at Bristol Crown Court today
Friends and family of Becky Watts, including her grandfather John Galsworth (pictured second left), are seen wearing blue ribbons in support of the teenager as they arrive at Bristol Crown Court
The court heard from Matthews that he had got them for his 'own protection' and once tested them on his own arm for a 'tenth of second'.
He told jurors he took the stun guns with him in case scaring Becky did not work.
'I don't know if I read it or got told it but with the stun thing, if you put it on someone for a couple of seconds, you pass out, that is obviously a non-lethal way,' he said.
Matthews and Hoare are on trial accused of murdering Becky in her bedroom at her family home in Crown Hill, Bristol, before driving her body to their home in Cotton Mill Lane, Barton Hill, Bristol.
Prosecutors say the couple dismembered Becky in the bath of the terraced property using a circular saw, before packing her body parts in bags, cling film and tape.
These were discovered in suitcases, bags and a blue box in a garden shed in Barton Court - 80 metres from their home - in the early hours of March 3.
Adam Vaitilingam QC, defending, asked his client today: 'Did you intend to kill Becky?'
Fighting back tears, Matthews replied: 'No.'
Mr Vaitilingam asked: 'Did you intend to cause her really serious injury?'
Matthews answered: 'No.'
He then burst into tears, telling the court: 'No, no... No I didn't.'
Matthews then slumped into the witness box, holding his head in his hands and loudly crying.
He then paused to recompose himself and took some sips of water before continuing to give his evidence.
Something didn’t seem right with her breathing because she was not breathing I checked for a pulse and she didn’t have a pulse
Nathan Matthews
After admitting to having anger issues, Matthews said: 'If I’m shown violence then I will show it back.
'If somebody drives close behind me and is being aggressive I will react to that by putting the brakes on.
'It’s fight or flight. If you corner a rat then you will attack.'
Asked by Mr Vaitilingam about his relationship with Becky, Matthews said: 'It was good. It was civil when she got older.
'Obviously I didn't like the way she bullied my mum and left trip hazards around for my mum to trip over.'
Matthews, a former electrician's assistant and pizza delivery man, said he suffered from the condition fibromyalgia which meant even a sneeze could see him 'collapse in pain'.
He added: 'I've always been in pain but it was always just my back and my legs and my shins when I used to walk to school.
'Obviously it spread to my arms and when I sneeze I can collapse in pain.
'I have a chemical imbalance in my brain or nerves which are sending the wrong signals to my brain. I feel a hot burning pain which stops you doing simple tasks.'
The jury was also told by Matthews that he suffered from anxieties.
He said: 'I used to sweat a lot even when it was freezing cold. Social situations I avoid because I struggle with them because I can’t recall things I’ve done in the past and tell it.
'I feel my face going red and hot.'
Matthews had a laptop with a 17-minute clip of a teenager being raped where the attacker held his hand over the girl's face
Earlier, the court heard that a laptop found in Hoare and Matthews' bedroom contained a video of a teenager being raped.
Co-prosecuting Richard Posner told the jury during admissions of 'agreed facts' the clip showed the attacker with his hand over the girl's face for one minute.
He said: 'There was a 17-minute film of a teenager being raped entitled "Virgin teen gets raped in her own house".
'The contents included a female having a hand put over her mouth for one minute.'
He added the apparent attack took place on the girl's bed and involved tying her hands and slapping her face.
Matthews and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, are on trial accused of murdering nine-stone Becky after plotting to kidnap her to satisfy their shared ‘unnatural interest’ in petite teenage girls.
The court has already heard Becky's body had 'injuries around the mouth and nose [...] consistent with a hand over the nose and mouth causing suffocation'.
The laptop also had 236 images and 21 movies showing an interest in teenagers, Mr Posner said.
The court heard the contents were downloaded in 2009 and 2010, and transferred to the laptop in a 'bulk transfer' in November 2013.
Yesterday, jurors were shown video footage of Hoare breaking down in a police interview as she denied any part in the crime and told detectives that the teenager from Bristol ‘did not deserve to die’.
The prosecution claim Matthews and Hoare both took her body back to their home in the city and dismembered it with a circular saw in the bath tub.
Matthews has admitted killing his stepsister Becky in February in a botched kidnap attempt he devised to ‘teach her a lesson’ for mistreating his mother.
But he denies murder and insists his girlfriend knew nothing about the crime.
He has also said he did not tell his girlfriend the ‘real reason’ why he bought the items he used to clean up, adding: ‘I cannot remember if she asked why I was buying them but if she did I would have lied.’
Bristol Crown Court also heard how Hoare told detectives she was ‘appalled’ after hearing her boyfriend had confessed to killing Becky.
And she denied knowing anything about Becky’s death and Matthews’s alleged cover-up, saying: ‘I couldn't live in a house knowing that he had viciously killed someone. You can imagine the suffering she went through, how scared, and to imagine I was round there.
The prosecution claim Matthews and Hoare both took Becky's body back to their home in the city and dismembered it with a circular saw in the bath tub. Her grandfather John Galsworthy is pictured left
Purchase: The jury has previously been shown a video of Matthews buying the saw he allegedly used to chop up Becky's body
'To know that if I had pushed him one day it could have been me. I just don't understand any of it.’
Hoare also said she did not want to ‘protect’ Matthews, adding: ‘There is still a part of me that does care for him but it is more anger and disgust that he has taken, that he has done that.’
She told detectives that Matthews was quick to become aggressive and said he often took things the wrong way.
She also told police that she dreamed of her lover dumping her because he was so controlling it was the only way she could be free, the hearing was told.
The interview with officers came after Matthews - who admits manslaughter but denies murder - had admitted killing Becky while trying to kidnap her and dismembering her body.
Asked about his confession, Hoare said: 'I'm feeling sick to know she was there - appalled, disgusted, outrageously angry - and I feel a bit like I am going to wake up and this is not happening.
It’s fight or flight. If you corner a rat then you will attack
Nathan Matthews
'I think it is more angry at the moment than anything - angry he has done it, that he did it, that he could do it when I was there in the house.
'And he acted so normal to me. I am really confused why he did it, what his plans were, how he thought he could get away with it and why.
'I don't understand. I can't even look at him. I just wanted to kill him - bad choice of words. I felt sick looking at him, knowing what he did.
'I didn't always like Becky but she was a nice enough girl, she was so young. I don't understand why he did it. I don't understand how he could have done it to us.
'Obviously I heard the power saw at the time - I didn't think he was doing anything like that with it. I just thought he was cutting pipe.
'Obviously finding out what I found, I assume he wasn't cutting pipe but apart from that I have no knowledge of what has happened at all.'
Hoare added: 'I can imagine the suffering she went through, how scared she was, to know that I was right there. She deserved to live her life. She didn't do anything wrong.'
Hoare has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Matthews denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, preventing the burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Two others admit assisting an offender over the case, while three people have denied the same charge. The case continues.
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