A jilted lover who strangled his pregnant ex-girlfriend with cable ties and dumped her body in the bath after she reported him to the taxman has been convicted of murder .
Matthew Smith strangled Isobel 'Becky' Parker, 23, in the bathroom of her home in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, after discovering his tax credits had been stopped.
He left the mother of two to die in the bathtub, with cable ties wound tightly around her neck.
He then sent a text message to her teenage sister, Sarah, reading: "By the time you get there it will be too late."
When Sarah asked him where he was, he replied: "We all know it is too late for that."
Becky's 'freezing' body was later found in the tub by her distraught sibling.
Smith, 24, had admitted killing Becky, who was six months' pregnant with another man's baby, just one room away from where their two young children were playing.
However, he claimed to have lost his self control in doing so.
But after more than 14 hours of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men today found him guilty of murder at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Smith showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.
Addressing the defendant, Judge Charles Gratwicke warned him he is facing life behind bars.
"You know, Matthew Smith, the only sentence this court can pass is a sentence of life and there will be a substantial sentence," he said.
"You may go downstairs."
During the trial, the jury had heard how Becky, a former restaurant worker, had been in a relationship with Smith for at least six years.
However, she had left him for her new man about six months before her death in July last year.
John Caudle, prosecuting, told the court that Smith had taken the break up badly and had even tried to kill himself.
But he had come around and had started taking each of the children on alternative weekends, he said.
Just over two weeks before her death, Becky had contacted HMRC to report a change in circumstances within the household and to tell them that Smith had moved out.
As a result, it was calculated that Smith had been overpaid by £1,527.21 in tax credits - which needed to be repaid - since he left the family home just after Christmas in 2014.
Mr Caudle told the court: "According to Shane Anderson [Becky's new boyfriend], the defendant was always trying to get Becky to go out with him and his family despite her telling him repeatedly that the
relationship was over and there was no more him and her.
"In Shane's view, the defendant did not want to see Becky happy and was very jealous."
Mr Caudle added: "He [Smith] tightened cable ties to her neck to a degree that they could not be seen and he murdered her.
"Maybe because of jealousy that she was pregnant with a new boyfriend, maybe that combined with she had told HMRC he was no longer around and he no longer had tax credits, we don't know."
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