Twisted woman, 30, 'ghosts man, 22, after sex, then gets her friends to drown him'
Becki West-Davidson of England has been sentenced to live in prison for getting two male friends to drown to death an autistic lover
Becki West-Davidson, the Ipswich, Suffolk woman who organized for a man she had sex with to be drowned and whom she attempted to “ghost,” has been slapped with a life sentence, the Mirror reports.
The victim of the drowning, 22-year-old Joe Pooley, professed his love for Becki West-Davidson after the two of them had sex. But, as the Ipswich Crown Court learned, she preferred to ignore the romantic overtures from Pooley, who had autism.
After Pooley sent her a text message expressing surprise that Becki West-Davidson did not live with her children, she flew into a rage and ordered the hit on him that would leave her former sexual fling dead by drowning.
Sean Palmer, 31, and Sebastian Smith, 35, attacked Pooley at Becki West-Davidson’s behest on August 7, 2018. Then they tossed him into the River Gipping in Ipswich, causing him to drown.
Palmer was later said to have confessed to his mother that he held Mr Pooley under the water.
Nearly a week passed until a passing dog walker spotted the drowned body of Beck West-Davidson’s rejected sexual fling.
Smith was so crafty that he actually joined Pooley’s family in looking for the young man before his body turned up.
A week before he followed Becki West-Davidson’s orders and drowned Pooley, Smith allegedly took his friend’s former sexual fling to a wooded area and told him to “dig his own grave.”
Becki West-Davidson put on a show during her former sexual fling’s memorial service, pretending to be grief stricken and even hugging Sam Nicholls, the mother of the drowned man, Metro reports.
She also tried to cover up the murder by deleting a Facebook message in which she said ‘you’re f**ked mate’ when Joe asked her to ‘call off the hit’.
Nicholls got up in court and slammed Beck West-Davidson for turning on her son after having sex with him and for ordering his drowning, saying to her, “I will never forgive you for coming to Joe’s memorial and conning me into thinking you cared for Joe. I put my arms around you and comforted you.”
The grieving mother said that the memory of her son’s water-logged body haunted her and that she suffered from recurring nightmares about his slaying.
She said that her son struggled with making social ties and had an inability to discern his friends from his foes.
The BBC notes that Smith and Palmer were also convicted of murder after pleading not guilty.
The court heard Mr Pooley, who had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Asperger’s and autism, was a target for bullies, and preyed upon for his trusting personality. The night before he was killed, he slept with 30-year-old West-Davidson, of Roper Court, Ipswich, who was previously known as Rebecca Shevlin.
During the period after Pooley and Becki West-Davidson had sex but just before his drowning, Smith sent him a barrage of threatening messages over Facebook Messenger.
Fearful, Pooley turned to Becki West-Davidson for comfort, but the woman who had recently had sex with him and would demand he be drowned called him a “low-life scumbag.”
A horrified Judge Martyn Levett said to the three defendants (with Smith and Palmer in absentia after they refused to attend the sentencing hearing), “This is all to do with sexual jealousy, because of the relationship between the three of you.”
The Standard reports that Smith must remain in prison for 21 years before she is eligible for parole.
Detective Inspector Karl Nightingale, of Suffolk Police’s Major Investigation Team, said: “Joe Pooley was a young man who wanted to be liked and sought friendship. Sadly, some people took advantage of his vulnerabilities and used him.”
