Former Eton College master, 46, admits killing his 84-year-old mother who was found in street with head injuries in affluent Cotswolds

• Matthew Corry, 46, was living with his mother, Beatrice Corry, in her apartment 
• He appeared via videolink at Bristol Crown Court to plead guilty to the killing
• He had previously denied murder but entered his amended plea on Monday

A former Eton College master has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his 84-year-old mother who was found with head injuries in an affluent Cotswolds town.

Matthew Corry, 46, had been living with his mother, Beatrice Corry, in her apartment within a converted grammar school.

He appeared via videolink at Bristol Crown Court this morning to plead guilty to the killing of Mrs Corry in January.

He will be sentenced by Judge Peter Blair KC on July 10.

Mrs Corry was found with serious head injuries at her property on the High Street in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. She later died from her wounds.

Matthew Corry, 46, appeared via videolink to plead guilty to manslaughter in relation to the death of Beatrice Corry

Beatrice Corry, 84, who was found dead with head injuries at her home in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire

Just three days before she was killed, the ‘sprightly’ retired teacher and charity shop volunteer had led a meeting of a local history group.

Corry, the youngest of her five sons, worked at Eton until 2008 and had been teaching biology at fee-paying Godolphin and Latymer, in West London, until April 2020.

READ MORE: Former Eton College master, 45, denies murdering his 84-year-old mother who was found in street with head injuries in a Cotswolds town 

Corry attended Papplewick preparatory school in Ascot, Berkshire, where Old Boys include the former England rugby union international James Haskell.

The defendant later spent seven years teaching at Eton before moving on to a prep school in Oxford, Sedbergh School in Cumbria and Godolphin and Latymer, where fees this academic year cost £24,708. The independent girls’ school in Hammersmith, West London, counts Carrie Johnson – wife of the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, singer Sophie Ellis Bextor and celebrity cook Nigella Lawson amongst its alumni.

Mrs Corry had chaired a meeting of her local history group, part of the University of the Third Age, on January 3, where fellow member David Pegg told the Mail she ‘didn’t appear to be troubled by anything.’

Mr Pegg added: ‘She was a lovely, selfless woman who did a lot of volunteering. Beatrice was extremely well known. She had a wonderful apartment in the town and she was still very active considering her age.

‘Before she took over from me as Chairman of the history group, she used to sort out the tea and coffee for everybody.’

Before moving to the Cotswolds, grandmother Mrs Corry had lived in a similarly grand conversion – an apartment in the former home of celebrated late crime novelist and playwright Agatha Christie, in Sunningdale, Berkshire.

The property, Styles, was named after her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 1926, five years after the book was first published in the UK, Christie became the focus of a real-life mystery which could have come straight from the pages of one of her novels.

Police were called to High Street in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds at around 12.30am on January 6 this year after Beatrice was found with head injuries

Christie vanished after driving off from the Sunningdale house just months after moving there with husband Archie Christie and their daughter Rosalind. Her car was found abandoned in Surrey but the writer was not see again until she was spotted in a Harrogate hotel 11 days later. She had checked in under the surname of her husband’s mistress, Nancy Neele.

At the time, Mr Christie said his wife had amnesia and concussion, but within two years the pair were divorced and neither party ever elaborated on what had happened any further.

Mrs Corry had volunteered at the Campden Home Nursing charity shop across the road from her home since it opened in 2019.

The charitable trust provides nursing care for the terminally ill who wish to be cared for at home. Speaking in January, Helen Makaritis, the trust’s CEO, said: ‘Beatrice was an incredible lady, she had so much energy and would regularly have completed a five mile walk before her shift in the shop.

‘Described as a ‘force of nature’ by the shop team, she was always positive and never afraid to voice her opinion, a very intelligent lady who was knowledgeable about so many things. Never without a scarf or a twinkle in her eye, she was loved by us all.’

Corry is believed to have moved in with his mother three years before he allegedly killed her.

He had previously denied murder but entered his amended plea on what would have been the first day of his trial.

At his first court appearance earlier this year, he told a district judge was on medication for bi polar disorder and had attended Eton school, as well as being a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge university.

Corry was told to appear in person at next week’s sentencing and was remanded in custody by The Recorder of Bristol His Honour Judge Peter Blair KC to the hospital where he is currently staying.

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