Argoed inquest: Hostel owner on Cerys Yemm 'horror' killing

Cerys Yemm and Matthew Williams met about two weeks before the attack

The owner of a hostel where a woman was killed has told an inquest about the moment she walked in on the attack.

Prison leaver Matthew Williams was found attacking Cerys Yemm, 22, at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel in Argoed, on 6 November 2014.

Williams, 34, was Tasered by police who arrested him and he later died.

Mandy Miles told the hearing there was "blood everywhere" and the scene was "like a horror film".

She told a 999 operator at the time of the attack that she believed Williams was cannibalising Miss Yemm, but told the inquest she now knows that to be untrue.

She said: "His head was down in hers. He didn't react to my voice. I said 'Matthew do you know what your doing?'

"My son said 'are you eating her?' Even though science has shown he wasn't - in my mind he was."

She added: "There was shouting from the room after police officers went in there. They were shouting 'get down'.

"I think Matthew had tried to get out. If he got out he could have killed everyone."

Earlier on Wednesday, the inquest was read a statement from Williams' mother Sally Ann Williams, who claimed her son had been released from prison two weeks earlier with no help for his mental health problems.

The hearing at Gwent Coroner's Court in Newport was told Williams had spent time in a young offenders' institute aged 15 and when he returned to live with his mother, he was a "nightmare".

She said he was stealing to get money for drugs and was regularly in trouble with police.

He become paranoid and was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced paranoid schizophrenia.

Mrs Williams said she did not think prison was the right place for her son and believed he should have been somewhere his mental health could be managed.

Her statement said he was released from prison before the attack without medication and the family tried to get appointments with doctors and a mental health team, but none were made.

The inquest heard he told his mother he was feeling paranoid and "the voices were back" in the days before the killing.

School friend Rhodri Moore told the hearing Williams took amphetamines and mephedrone in the days before the attack and he "didn't seem very well".

He said Williams was having hallucinations, including seeing faces in cans of soft drink.

Mr Moore said Williams and Miss Yemm had a "flirty relationship" together, having met two weeks before, and his friend showed no obvious aggression towards her.

In the hours before the killing, the three smoked cannabis and drank lager before Miss Yemm and Williams went back to the Sirhowy Arms Hotel together.

Earlier that night, Williams had been on the phone to Miss Yemm's ex-boyfriend who he knew in prison.

He said: "I found it strange that he was in jail with her ex-partner and then he comes out and he meets her. I never got the impression that he had come out of prison looking for Cerys."

A statement from Miss Yemm's mother, Paula Yemm, said her daughter was in what she considered to be a "controlling" relationship with a man called Jay who was in prison with Williams.

Mrs Yemm said the couple were "planning a life together after he was released" and Jay had warned Miss Yemm to stay away from Williams.

The inquest is continuing.