University of Manchester student accused of killing her fiancé after she hit him with car

A Manchester University student is currently on trial at Chester Crown court, accused of killing her boyfriend.

Alice Wood, 23, is currently facing a murder charge, which she denies.

Ryan Watson died after an incident following a birthday party on 6th May 2022, Metro reports.

The couple had got together in March 2020, and were engaged in September of the same year, before buying a house together.

In May of last year, Wood was studying for her final exams in a theology, ethics and philosophy degree, and had been offered a scholarship for a research masters.

Earlier on the night of May 6th, at a birthday party both attended, witnesses reported tension between the pair, watching the couple argue throughout the night, including over “who was going to drive home.”

The birthday party was held for a user of Headway, a brain injury charity that Watson worked for.

Wood told the court she reversed out of a car park near their home in Cheshire, hitting Ryan’s car as well as a bin and a bollard. She then drove at Ryan in an attempt to scare him, before hitting him.

She was over the drink-driving limit at the time, blowing 61 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Wood confirmed that these arguments continued when she drove them home, saying that Watson accused her of flirting with other guests and that he “called her a slag.” When they return home, Wood alleges that she was trying to ring her dad to get him to pick her up, but couldn’t find her phone. After asking Watson to borrow his phone, she says he “erupted” before grabbing her hair extensions, leaning her over the hob and holding the ignition switch.

She then went to leave their home, adding that the argument continued outside the house. She further said that Watson threatened to send someone to “have her mum knifed up.”

Prosecutor Andrew Ford said that Wood “lost her temper” before “things got fraught, he got out, kicked a door and she lost her cool and began using the car as a weapon.” Ford continued, saying that “she attempted to reverse into Watson, in what has been described as a game of chicken.”

As well as this, the prosecution allege that Wood “drove into Ryan Watson for a second time, knocking him under the vehicles front end, and drove 158 metres with him under the car.”

Wood accepted that Watson was knocked down and his body went under the car, but said she didn’t see him in front of the car at the time. She further told the court that she felt that the car wasn’t accelerating as it should, and stopped after a short distance.

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