Becci Rees-Hughes: 'Lovely' student stabbed to death at Beverley home by partner who'd discovered her affair

Becci Rees-Hughes was found at her home on Samman Road, Beverley, which she shared with Ben Crosby on July 25, 2022.

She had been stabbed 26 times, as well as being bludgeoned around the head with a baseball bat.

Crosby died in a car crash a short time later while being pursued by police.

An inquest in Hull heard that the 37-year-old Hull University physics student met Crosby in 2015 and seemed “settled and happy”, working hard at her studies and getting excellent results.

But she started having an affair with one of the chefs at the King's Head pub in the town centre after she began working there in May 2022 and Crosby, 46, had found out.

However they'd agreed to stay together and got engaged in Hornsea on Crosby's birthday on June 30 2022.

The court heard Becci sent eight text messages to her lover the day before she was killed saying: "I can't get over you. I'm trying but I can't."

She told him that her partner was "fine and had got over it", but her lover didn't believe that to be the case. She'd previously told him she was splitting up from her partner, who was jealous, and she wanted to be single, but later that they were staying together for the sake of their children.

Shortly afterwards he was sent anonymous text messages, warning him to "stay away".

A work colleague said, in one of a series of witness statements read to the court, that Becci, who worked as a waitress, was a "lovely girl". But he'd seen her and Crosby in the street and Crosby "was raising his voice" and "had hold of her upper arm..definitely not in loving way".

Becci, he said, seemed to seek excuses to stay at work "where she felt she could have more fun."

Crosby's former partner said she's noticed that he was "quiet and acting totally out of character" and in a call on July 18 he told her Becci had admitted to the affair and said she'd stop "but despite the reassurances the affair continued".

In the early hours of July 25 2022 Crosby rang his parents saying: "I've messed up really bad. I've killed her." They drove to Beverley and found him grey-faced sitting in his car.

Becci was slumped on the sofa covered in blood and showing no sign of life.

Crosby then came into the house, and asked his father what he was going to do. His father told him he was going to call the police: “Ben said: 'I'm gone' and walked out the back door." His mother ran out after him and Crosby walked back in, gave them a cuddle and said he was sorry.

The statement went on: "At 5.54am I called 999. I explained that my son had killed his girlfriend...I knew he was intent on taking his life." Crosby was fatally injured when his Volkswagen Polo crashed into a van on the A1034 near Hornsea soon after. The van driver was seriously injured. Coroner Professor Paul Marks concluded that Becci had been unlawfully killed. A jury will hear evidence at a separate inquest into Crosby's death.