It could be a night out like any other: a young man and his fiancée enter a party carrying a gift bag and are seen playfully jostling and laughing at a table as they enjoy drinks.
But hours later, 24-year-old Ryan Watson was dead, murdered by life partner-to-be Alice Wood after she ran down and dragged him 524 feet – almost a tenth of a mile – along the road following an argument about him speaking to another woman.
Philosophy student Wood, 23, has been found guilty of killing her fiancé when she ran him over in what shocked witnesses described as a ‘game of chicken’ that has left his family bereft, robbed of their son ‘by the one person he trusted most’.
Footage released by Cheshire Police following the verdict showed Mr Watson, a charity worker, arriving at the party for one of his service users with Wood in Stoke on May 6 2022, and the pair of them laughing together as Wood holds a drink.
But Chester Crown Court heard the pair, who began dating in March 2020 before getting engaged six months later, began arguing at the event before they then left in his car, returning to their home in Rode Heath at around 11pm.
Alice Wood and and Ryan Watson were seen cosying up to one another at the party in Stoke on May 6 2022 – but hours later, she had murdered him with her car
Alice Wood drove at Ryan Watson twice in her Ford Fiesta before hitting him a third time and trapping him under the front bumper
The family of Mr Watson – seen in a tribute photo issued today – said they had ‘finally got justice’ for their ‘beloved’ son
The victim’s mother, Lisa, 44, read out a family statement today after Wood was convicted of murder
Wood is accompanied by a prison officer from Chester Crown Court after being found guilty of murder today
CCTV footage caught the moment Wood mowed down Mr Watson in a ‘game of chicken’ having lost her temper after watching him ‘click’ with another woman
Wood trapped her partner under the front bumper as she drove along Sandbach Road in the village of Rode Heath before finally coming to a stop
As they returned to their £120,000 Cheshire home Wood – who was over the legal alcohol limit – then got into her own car and began revving the engine, before driving at her fiancée three times in succession.
CCTV footage from around 11.30pm shows the killer reversing the Ford Fiesta into her partner, nearly hitting him. She then drives at him head on, sending him flying onto the bonnet, before he is able to get back onto his feet.
Wood then rams into him for a third and final time, trapping him under the front bumper as she drives along Sandbach Road in the village of Rode Heath before finally coming to a stop.
She then got out of the car and knocked on a neighbour’s door before telling them: ‘Please phone an ambulance, I think I’ve run over my boyfriend’. Upon arrest a sobbing Wood told officers: ‘It’s fine, I deserve it’.
Following the verdict, Mr Watson’s family hailed it as ‘justice’, rueing the fact that their son had been taken ‘so violently, by the one person he trusted the most’.
His mother Lisa, 44, read out a family statement which said: ‘I can’t imagine how scared Ryan must have been at that moment.
‘The one person Ryan trusted the most is the person who took his life in such a violent way. I am living in a nightmare knowing my son’s last moments were so brutal.’
She hailed her son as a ‘bubbly, fun-loving, caring person with a heart of gold’ and said he ‘enriched the lives of everyone who knew him’.
She continued: ‘We only had 24 years together, but we are proud to say he was our son and a fantastic big brother. We are grateful today we got justice for Ryan.
‘It’s been so hard to watch the CCTV footage of our son getting hit by her car over and over again, then dragged up the road still being trapped under her car.
‘We saw the CCTV footage at the party that night. We are so proud to see him being such a gentleman to everyone, even helping an old lady who had fallen over.
‘He was the life and soul of the party that night. 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’ll never get to live his life and fulfil his dreams.’
The couple had grown up in nearby Cheadle, a quiet town on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands, where it is understood they met. They bought their house seven months before Mr Watson’s death with help from their parents. The area is popular with people who cannot afford the higher prices in Cheadle.
The killer showed no emotion this morning as she was convicted of murder by a jury after less than eight hours deliberation. Judge Michael Leeming remanded her in custody for sentencing on January 29 and told her she ‘may never be released’.
Wood – who has two brothers – had lived alternatively with her mother Deborah Sproston, a doctor’s receptionist, and father Trevor Wood, a furniture maker, who are divorced.
Fellow party guest Tiffany Ferriday told the court she and Mr Watson had ‘clicked’ and Wood was ‘pretty much left out’ of conversation.
Miss Ferriday previously told the court how she’d met him at other events as her mother was also a service user.
She described him as the ‘light of the table’ and being ‘happy’ and ‘bubbly’ at the party, held at Victoria Lounge bar in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
‘He was dancing with us all, he was involving everyone,’ she said. ‘Alice didn’t really seem to get involved.’
She said that at one point, Wood told Mr Watson: ‘Watch what you’re drinking.’
Miss Ferriday said she felt like she was ‘getting stared at’ by Wood for much of the night.
In cross-examination, Miss Ferriday agreed she thought Wood was staring at her because of the way she and Mr Watson behaved with each other.
Judge Michael Leeming told Wood: ‘You have been convicted of the murder of Ryan Watson. There is only one sentence that the law allows and that is life imprisonment.
‘I am required to consider the minimum term you must serve in custody before the Parole Board deems it safe for you to be released. You may never be released. It is a matter entirely for the Parole Board.’
Wood stared downwards as she left the dock.
Ryan Watson and Alice Wood seen leaving the party in Stoke after arguing at the party, driving home in Watson’s car
After arriving home, Wood gets into her own car, a Ford Fiesta, and reverses towards Ryan – almost hitting him
She then drives into her fiancé a second time, knocking him onto the bonnet
Mr Watson gets up and walks away from the collision, but Wood deliberately drives at him a third time
Upon arrest a sobbing Wood told officers: ‘It’s fine, I deserve it’
Wood claimed she’d wanted to get away from Mr Watson and stay at her mum’s house that night to help defuse the row but couldn’t find her phone to arrange a lift from her dad and Mr Watson had refused to lend her his mobile.
The three-week trial heard the couple had rowed after returning home from a birthday party in Hanley, Stoke, for a service user of the Headway brain injury charity where Mr Watson worked as a support worker.
Mr Watson had ‘clicked’ with a female guest at the party, who had felt Wood staring at her, the jury heard.
Other party guests said there appeared to be ‘friction’ between the couple and while Mr Watson had been enjoying himself and mingling with people Wood was a ‘bit cold’ and wasn’t ‘best pleased’ with his behaviour.
After they returned home from the party in Mr Watson’s car and, although nearly double the drink-drive limit, Wood got behind the wheel of her Ford Fiesta and witnesses described her playing ‘a game of chicken’ with Mr Watson by driving the car forwards and backwards at him.
Shocking CCTV footage played to the jury showed Wood’s Fiesta swerving onto the pavement and hitting Mr Watson, sending him flying on to the bonnet.
He managed to get to his feet but seconds later he was struck a second time, causing him to fall under the car’s front bumper.
Mr Watson was heard screaming in the footage as he became trapped under the Fiesta’s chassis, with Wood driving for 158m before coming to a stop down the road.
After the collision, a ‘hysterical’ Wood had knocked on a neighbour’s door and told her: ‘Please telephone an ambulance, I think I have run over my boyfriend.’
When they went over to the Fiesta, where there was a pool of blood on the road and Mr Watson’s legs were sticking out from underneath the vehicle, Wood said: ‘Look what I’ve done.’
Wood also told police and paramedics she had run over Mr Watson, who died from crush asphyxiation injuries, but he had ‘jumped in front’ of her car.
Giving evidence, she claimed Mr Watson had ‘flipped’ after accusing her of ‘flirting’ with other men at the party.
She told the jury he’d called her a ‘s**g’ and a ‘whore’ and that she’d embarrassed him in front of other party guests.
She claimed Mr Watson had also threatened to have her mother killed and she’d only driven towards him initially to ‘scare’ and ‘intimidate’ him.
Wood denied ‘deliberately’ `and ‘intentionally’ driving at him and wanting to cause him harm.
She claimed not to have seen him and only realised something was wrong when she struggled to accelerate and manoeuvre the car.
Seeing him under her Fiesta had been like she ‘stepping into a nightmare’, she told the jury, and like she was ‘in hell’.
But Andrew Ford KC, prosecuting, said Wood had killed Mr Watson by ‘deliberately running him down’ and it was not a tragic accident as she claimed.
He said Wood had ‘lost her cool’ while arguing with him and ‘used her car as a weapon’.
Mr Ford suggested she had decided to turn events around to claim Mr Watson had accused her of flirting, and that was the reason for them rowing, when the ‘truth’ was the ‘other way round’ and she became unhappy with his behaviour at the party.
The jury heard she had drunk two glasses of wine, two rums, and a glass of champagne at the party and a breath test revealed she had 61 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit is 35 micrograms.
During the trial there was a disagreement between two collision experts over her perceived response time (PRT).
One expert claimed Watson may have ‘taken her eyes’ off Mr Wood and there may have not been enough time for her to react.
But the other expert said Mr Watson was not an ‘unexpected hazard’ because Wood had driven at him the first time.
Wood and Mr Watson bought a £120,000 Cheshire home just seven months before his death
Wood is seen being accompanied by a prison officer. She will be sentenced on January 29
Wood claimed the collision was a tragic accident but a jury at Chester Crown Court today convicted her of murder
Wood became incensed after Mr Watson ‘clicked’ with another guest at the event, Tiffany Ferriday (pictured)
Pc Alistair Robinson, who was called to the property in Rode Heath, Cheshire on May 6 last year, said Wood was sitting on a sofa in the living room of the house and was ‘sobbing’.
He added: ‘I could smell alcohol. She appeared drunk.’
He said she was arrested on suspicion of murder by his colleague, then breathalysed and arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
Mr Robinson said as they travelled to custody in a police van his colleague explained what would happen when they got to the police station.
Wood then replied: ‘That’s fine, I deserve it.’
His colleague then told her everyone would look after her and she replied ‘I don’t deserve it’, Mr Robinson said.
He said Wood was compliant and when they got to the police station a further breathalyser test was carried out.
He told the court: ‘On a couple of occasions she said words to the effect of ‘you should just shoot me in the head’ whilst she was crying.’
Wood is believed to have set her sights on a career as a vet but now she faces a sentence of life imprisonment.
A source close to Wood’s family said: ‘She was a very intelligent girl, very clever, and she had a promising future. It’s a terrible waste of a talent but these things happen in life.
‘Everyone’s capable of having a temper, people can just snap. It’s just a tragedy to be honest, it really is, for her and (her boyfriend) Ryan Watson.’
Wood and Mr Watson had only bought their home in the small Cheshire village of Rode Heath for £120,000 in October 2021 – seven months before Mr Watson’s death in May 2022.
Before she is understood to have gone away to university for her undergraduate degree, Wood had part-time jobs in a convenience store and as a waitress in a pub.
In recent years, she had managed to go travelling, with her Facebook account showing a picture of her posing with a small elephant in a jungle setting.
Mr Watson was today described as a ‘bubbly, fun-loving, caring person with a heart of gold’
‘Very clever’ Alice Wood appeared destined to be a high achiever and was set to take a place on a postgraduate degree at Cambridge University, according to sources close to her family
One local said: ‘She was quiet and studious. When she was older, she and her mother would go out to do the pub quiz together.
‘She seemed like she was destined for a good career – for her to be accused of murder is the last thing you’d expect to happen.’
Mr Watson, who worked for brain injury support charity Headway, was described by one resident in Rode Heath as ‘kind-hearted and helpful’.
One woman who lives in the village – and witnessed the aftermath of the ‘horrific’ killing after Wood came knocking for help – said: ‘Our landlord knew Ryan and said he was a lovely lad.
‘Everybody thought the world of him. He was kind-hearted and helpful… a really lovely boy. That’s what is so heart breaking.’
But the woman, a shop assistant, revealed that when Wood banged on her door seeking help on the night of the murder, she was already trying to provide her justification for what happened.
She recalled: ‘She told us she was upset because she wanted to go back to find her cell phone (and) he (Ryan) thought she was flirting with other men.
‘She never went back for her phone, so she didn’t have a phone on her.’
The resident said she let Wood borrow her phone to try to ring her mother but, in her panicked state, ‘couldn’t remember her mum’s phone number’.
Describing Wood’s demeanour, the woman added: ‘(Wood) was quite distressed, but she wasn’t crying..
‘She said: ‘Please phone for an ambulance . I’ve run over my boyfriend.’ I thought he would be lying by the side of the road in pain, so I went out.
‘He was completely underneath the vehicle, but his head was visible, and his foot was sticking out.
‘I tried to see if he was still conscious but there was no answer. It was quite horrific.
‘We called an ambulance, and they were here in 15 minutes . I was on the phone to them all that time.
‘I really feel for his family. We have two kids of our own …I’ve been trying to put it out of my mind.’
Another Rode Heath resident who went to help at the scene, said: ‘There were drag marks near the car. I’m still trying to figure out how it happened. I’ve never seen an incident like this.
‘The passenger door was open. The engine was cool. He was jammed under the car.
‘The girl didn’t want to see Ryan…the paramedics wanted her to go outside but she didn’t want to.
‘She was all over the place. She couldn’t walk. We had to support her. She was traumatised but couldn’t walk whether she was drunk or sober.
‘The police arrived shortly after and arrested her.’
Wood denied a charge of murder but was found guilty by a jury. She had also denied an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Wood and Ryan Watson had only bought their home in the small Cheshire village of Rode Heath for £120,000 in October 2021 – seven months before Mr Watson’s death in May 2022
Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Nigel Parr, of Cheshire Police said his thoughts remained with Ryan’s family following the outcome of the case.
He said: ‘While no conviction is going to bring Ryan back, I hope it will bring some sense of closure for his family, knowing that justice has been served.
‘The night Ryan died, Wood used her vehicle as a weapon, while under the influence of alcohol, deliberately driving at him and even continuing to drive after knocking him down.
‘She knew what she had done, but since then has refused to take accountability for her actions.
‘Thankfully, as a result of our investigation and the evidence against her, she has been found guilty of Ryan’s murder.
‘Our thoughts remain with Ryan’s family and friends as they continue to deal with the devastating events that took place.’
David Jones, Senior Crown Prosecutor in CPS Mersey-Cheshire, added: ‘This was a tragic loss of life of a young man with his whole life ahead of him.
‘Under the influence of alcohol, it was clear that Alice Wood’s jealousy was ammunition enough for her to brutally kill her partner.
‘Though it will never make up for their devastating loss, I hope today’s conviction brings Ryan’s family some solace, knowing his murderer has been brought to justice.’