James Ireland 'disgusted' to learn packages contained Becky Watts body parts

They are accused of driving Becky’s body from her home in Crown Hill, Bristol, to their property in Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, where they dismembered it in the bath.

Becky’s body parts were packed into suitcases and a box and moved to a garden shed 80 metres away, where they were discovered by police on March 3.

James Ireland, 23, and his work colleague Karl Demetrius, 30, helped Matthews move the suitcases and box into Demetrius’s shed in the early hours of February 24.

Both insist they did not know the contents of the items until they were informed by police.

Ireland, who denies assisting an offender, told Bristol Crown Court he would not have moved the suitcases and box if he had known they were related to Becky, or another crime.

Sean Hammond, representing Ireland, asked his client: “You now know you were involved in moving packages containing the body parts of Becky Watts, how does that make you feel?”

Ireland replied: “Upset, shocked and distraught and disgusted.

“It has ruined my life because I have been stuck away from my girlfriend and my mum, my brothers and sisters for something I didn’t know happened and I would not have got involved in.

“It’s put a massive strain on my life that I have stopped taking my meds.”

The court heard Ireland, who suffers from ADHD, has been unable to take his medication while in custody, where he has been since his arrest on March 3.

Ireland agreed to give a lift to a friend of his colleague, Demetrius, as they worked a night shift in Filton, on February 23.

“I just said ’Yeah, work’s dead, there’s nothing here to do’,” Ireland told the jury, adding that he expected to receive £5 or £10 in petrol money.

The picker insisted he had not overheard any of the six phone conversations between Matthews and Demetrius, had not met Hoare or Matthews before and was not told their names.

Ireland, driving his Ford Fiesta, and Demetrius, his passenger, left work at 12.29am on February 24 and collected Hoare and Matthews from her family’s home in Southmead.

During the 20-minute journey, Ireland only spoke to Matthews for directions and stopped in Cotton Mill Lane to drop him and Hoare off.

Demetrius left the car to speak to Matthews and the pair returned minutes later to ask Ireland to borrow a work van to move items.

“They said he had been chucked out and he needed help with his clothes and stuff like that,” Ireland told the court.

Ireland picked up a work van and drove back to Cotton Mill Lane, with Demetrius texting his partner Jaydene Parsons, on the journey.

“Cool, that’s a deposit on a house,” Parsons texted Demetrius, the court heard.

Ireland insisted he was not aware of the messages, that Matthews had offered Demetrius £10,000, or that he was offered a share.

“I have gone 20 odd years without breaking the law so I wouldn’t start doing it now,” he added.

He claimed he remained in the hallway of Matthews’s home while Matthews collected items with Demetrius for 20 to 25 minutes.

Former TA soldier Matthews spent a further 10 to 15 minutes fetching packages from his front room, then all three loaded the suitcases and box into the van.

“I said ’Where are we going?’. They looked at each other like ’I don’t know’,” Ireland said.

“Because of the time and I was meant to be at work with Karl, I said ’Well, it’s Barton Hill so how about you leave them at yours Karl because it is close by?’.”

Clothes were on top of the blue box and the suitcases were closed so Ireland did not see the contents, he said.

Ireland drove the van to Demetrius’s house and the three unloaded the items before packing them into the shed outside.

In the days that followed, he sent messages to Demetrius about Becky Watts.

“It was just a conversation as over his side of town was where it happened,” Ireland said.

“Obviously it is not a nice thing to happen in Bristol, let alone close to where you live.”

He said he never discussed the items in Demetrius’s shed, or received any money.

Matthews, of Hazelbury Drive, Warmley, South Gloucestershire, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap.

He admits killing Becky, perverting the course of justice, preventing the burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Hoare, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, denies murder, conspiracy to kidnap, perverting the course of justice, preventing burial of a corpse and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Karl Demetrius, 30, and his partner Parsons, 23, admit assisting an offender.

Donovan Demetrius – Karl’s twin brother – of Marsh Lane, Bristol, and Ireland, 23, of Richmond Villas, Avonmouth, deny the charge.