A philosophy student who killed her fiance when she ran over him with her car after she “lost her temper” has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 18 years.
Alice Wood, 24, was found guilty of the murder of her 24-year-old fiance Ryan Watson at about 11.30pm on 6 May 2022 when she ran over him near their Cheshire home after an argument.
Wood had denied murder and instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming the incident was a “tragic accident” and she did not realise he was trapped underneath her car when she drove 158 metres up a road.
A jury rejected her account and unanimously found her guilty of murder last month.
Passing sentence at Chester crown court on Friday, Judge Michael Leeming said: “Prison may be hard for you, Alice Wood, but you only have yourself to blame for the situation you now find yourself in.”
The three-week trial heard the couple had spent the evening at a party in Stoke-on-Trent with staff and service users of the brain injury charity Headway, where Watson was a support worker.
Speaking through tears for much of her evidence, Wood told the court that while they were driving home, Watson had “flipped” and accused her of flirting with other men, and the argument continued when they arrived at the house they shared.
She said she had left the house and got into her car to drive away, but Watson had followed her.
The prosecution said Wood, who had recently been awarded a scholarship for a master’s at Cambridge, “used her car as a weapon”, with CCTV showing she veered off the road and hit Watson twice. The first time he was hit, Watson fell on to the bonnet of the Ford Fiesta before stumbling to his feet as he was hit again.
He became trapped underneath the car as Wood drove 158 metres up the road before stopping, and knocking on the door of a nearby house where she said: “Please phone an ambulance. I think I’ve run over my boyfriend.”
Wood was preparing for final exams in theology, philosophy and ethics at Manchester University at the time of the murder and on the first day of the trial she had a copy of the book Meditations, a philosophy text by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, under her arm.
In a statement, Watson’s family said: “The one person Ryan trusted the most is the person who took his life in such a violent way. Alice is in prison where she belongs but no sentence is going to be long enough for what she has taken from us and Ryan. He will never get to live his life and fulfil his dreams.”
