Alice Wood drove her car at her partner Ryan Watson and murdered him, UK court told

A woman used her car ‘as a weapon’ to murder her boyfriend after she ‘lost her temper’ when he chatted with a female guest at a party, a UK jury heard yesterday. Alice Wood, 23, was nearly twice the legal drink-drive limit when she drove her Ford Fiesta at Ryan Watson outside the home they shared, causing catastrophic injuries, Chester Crown Court was told. He remained trapped beneath the car as she carried on driving for 175 yards (160m) before coming to a stop.

When police arrived and Wood was arrested on suspicion of murder, she told an officer: “It’s fine, I deserve it. ” The pair had earlier argued at a party organised by a client of a charity for brain injury victims, where 24-year-old Mr Watson was a support worker, the jury heard. Inside the courtroom with Tim Clarke.

At the gathering, held at a bar in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent on May 6 last year, Mr Watson was observed ‘being gregarious, outgoing and having fun’, jurors were told. In contrast, his girlfriend didn’t know anyone, and there appeared to be ‘friction’ between them. Guests said that while Mr Watson ‘worked the room’, Wood acted ‘a bit cold’, Andrew Ford, prosecuting, said.

One guest, Tiffany Ferriday, had ‘clicked’ with the deceased, the court heard, but she felt Wood ‘glaring’ at her. After Mr Watson and Wood left the party, Ms Ferriday received five missed Instagram calls from a ‘Ry’, but when she tried to contact them there was no answer. The couple drove back to their home in Rode Heath, Cheshire, in Mr Watson’s car, the court heard, parking outside a Chinese restaurant, where he ‘kicked’ another vehicle, jurors were told.

Wood then got behind the wheel of her Fiesta and witnesses described seeing her drive towards her boyfriend and then away from him, ‘playing chicken with him’. She then drove directly into him, turning off the carriageway to hit him, the court was told. He was knocked on to the bonnet of her car but was able to stand, the jury heard.

Mr Ford said: “She drove straight into Ryan Watson for the second time, head on. She knocked him clean over, under the vehicle’s front end. ” Staff in the Chinese restaurant heard ‘life-threatening screams’ as Mr Watson was crushed when Wood drove over him.

Mr Ford said the prosecution’s case was that Wood killed her boyfriend by ‘deliberately running him down’ with her car. “You will decide this, but we say the moment she drove at him, killing him, she lost her temper, that she had fallen into a mood and had an argument with him and in one moment or particular lost her cool,” he said. “Upon impact, Ryan Watson went under the front bumper.

He remained trapped under the chassis and she dragged him 160 metres down the road. ” Mr Ford said that after stopping her car, a ‘hysterical’ Wood told a neighbour: “Please telephone an ambulance — I think I have run over my boyfriend. ” The neighbour, Teresa Colborne, went over to Wood’s Fiesta and she could see blood on the road and Mr Watson’s legs sticking out from under the car.

Wood told her: “Look what I’ve done. ” She also told police and paramedics she had run over Mr Watson and claimed they had rowed because he had accused her of ‘flirting’ at the party. Wood told police she had drunk two glasses of wine, two rums and a glass of champagne that night.

A breath test revealed that she had 61 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath — the legal limit is 35 micrograms. A post-mortem examination found that Mr Watson had suffered fractures, cuts and bruises to his face and torso, and a swollen brain. His cause of death was ‘crush asphyxiation’.

Mr Ford said it was the prosecution’s case that Wood had ‘lost her cool’ and had ‘used her car as a weapon’. Wood, now of Cheadle, Staffordshire, wiped her face with a tissue at points as the evidence was heard. She denies murder.

The trial continues. .