I just want to post my final thoughts on the crime and the sentences.
I haven't changed my thinking that the correct verdict for SH should have been murder, based on my view, also touched on by the judge, that kidnappers don't tend to let their victims go afterwards, especially when the victim knows the identity of the attackers. I think a sentence of around 30 years would have been appropriate for both, to take into account all the aggravating features.
I don't agree that the judge should have allowed in SH's past as a mitigating factor, or the fact that she lost contact with her daughter. She took that risk when she committed this vile crime. If Retri is correct, she had no time for her daughter anyway.
I feel bad that I posted yesterday that NM should be locked up for his whole life, because he can't be cured. At the time I was thinking in line with the prosecution case, that this was a planned gratuitous killing with a sexual motive.
I think he is on the psychopathic spectrum but his shame (seen in the fact that he had to invent and stick with a false motive for his actions) and self-pity are evidence that there is more going on inside, he isn't dead inside.
His living conditions show his absolute inability to deal with his emotions and absence of any control over what he is suffering inside. And it is a mirror of his inner existence - a situation that is building and building and he can't control it - it is coming to a head and perhaps it is only just becoming apparent to his grandma but no-one knows why, he just comes across as jealous of Becky but it is more than that - he is so angry at his mum and hurt by her, but he can't show it. He is ashamed of wanting and needing more of her love than she gave him.
I believe that this wasn't a sexually motivated crime, and I think now that he is stuck at the age of the child he was when he became so damaged. It isn't an excuse for him, but I think if he can get over his shame and reveal this to psychiatrists, he can work through it and with their help, heal his wounded child.
I do pray this happens for him. I do not think any adult deserves to live with such severe emotional wounds from childhood. And I pray that the family get the reasons they so badly need so they can at least have an understanding even if they can never forgive.
I think along similar lines for SH but I fear that she has bigger problems to overcome, because I see very little emotional response in her at all. I think she went into this being dead inside to what she was doing. Totally shut down. Hence her lack of mothering skills.
They both need a lot of help, and a big stretch inside to pay for their crime. I fear with SH's lesser conviction and sentence she will not ever be held fully accountable for her true role in this crime, which will work against her, and she will never deal with the driving motivators behind her role in Becky's death.
Anyway, that's it from me folks, on this case at least.
It's been a learning experience for me.
RIP Becky Watts and I send love and healing to your family and friends.
