24 year old Matthew Smith strangled his pregnant ex girlfriend and
mother of his 2 children, Isobel 'Becky' Parker, 23, in the bathroom of
her home in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, after discovering his tax credits
had been stopped because he thought she reported him to the taxman.
After he killed her with cable ties wound tightly around her neck, he sent a text message to her younger sister, which read: "By the time you get there it will be too late."
When Sarah asked him where he was, he replied: "We all know it is too late for that."
Out of fear for Becky's safety, her distraught sister ran to her
home only to find Becky strangled to death in the tub. Police were
called and Smith was arrested on the suspicion of murder. Smith admitted
to killing Becky, who was six months' pregnant with another man's baby.
But said he was out of his mind when he did it.
During the trial, the jury heard how Becky, a former restaurant
worker, had been in a relationship with Smith for at least six years but
had left him after she met someone else.
Smith took the break very badly but got around to accepting that
Becky had moved on. She got pregnant almost immediately after meeting
the man last year.
Smith was sentenced to life in prison but he showed no emotion when he was sentence.
