Globe-trotting graduate kills university sweetheart
‘Backpacking in South America’
A MATHS graduate yesterday admitted murdering the beautiful and talented girlfriend he travelled the world with.
Joe Atkinson, 25, was living with university sweetheart Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, in a Leeds flat when she was stabbed to death.
Miss Devey Waterhouse had a Master’s degree in statistics and was working as an analyst with bookmakers William Hill when she was killed.
Atkinson, of Leeds, was due to go on trial later this year after initially pleading not guilty to murder, but appeared at Leeds Crown Court yesterday to plead guilty. Tearful relatives of Atkinson and Miss Devey Waterhouse were in court to hear him change his plea. He will be sentenced next Friday. The motive and circumstances of the murder have not yet been revealed.
Photographs on their social media accounts showed the young couple enjoying themselves on trips across the world. Last year alone they visited the Greek island of Santorini, Belgium, Morocco, Lithuania, Sweden and Denmark. In 2017, they went backpacking for six months in South America and the United States and Miss Devey Waterhouse also enjoyed trips to Australia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The couple met while studying mathematics at Nottingham University and both graduated with first-class honours degrees.
Miss Devey Waterhouse, who grew up in Frome, Somerset, stayed on to do her Master’s degree before moving to Leeds with Atkinson in 2017.
Paramedics responding to a 999 call attended the block of flats where they lived shortly before 9am on December 14 last year.
Miss Devey Waterhouse was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering ‘head and neck trauma’. An inquest was told she had been stabbed. Atkinson was arrested at the flat.
Police making door-to-door inquiries told residents the incident happened between 2am and 8am.
Atkinson will be given a mandatory life sentence next week when the judge must decide on a minimum term to be spent behind bars.
Miss Devey Waterhouse appeared to have a bright future ahead of her. She achieved A*s in her A-levels in both maths and further maths – as well as an A in law.
Before that she managed nine A*s and three As in her GCSEs at Frome Community College in Somerset. She was also a keen tennis player and coached children.