into his mother's bedroom while she slept and bludgeoned her to death
with a sledge hammer, and then set the house on fire to cause
distraction from him being suspected as the killer.
The horror film obsessed teenager was jailed for life on Monday after
evidence proved he battered his mother to death with a hammer,
claiming he was instructed by a voice..
Daniel Bartlam was just 14 when he hit mother Jacqueline, 47, seven
times with a claw hammer at their detached cul-de-sac home in Redhill,
Nottingham.
He then padded her body with paper, doused it in petrol and set fire
to it in a bid to destroy evidence and commit the 'perfect murder'.
Mrs Bartlam body was so burnt she was only identified by autopsy
doctors using dental records.
A court heard the teenager rescued his younger brother and the family
pet before fleeing from the burning house, telling police that Mrs
Bartlam, a Land Registry worker, had been killed by an intruder.
He was was charged with the murder after police discovered video
footage on his computer of Coronation Street's killer character, John
Stape.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Bartlam was 'obsessed' with a Cornation
street character – who battered a woman with a hammer before leaving
her body in the wreckage of a tram crash to cover up his crime – and
stored files relating to the plot on his computer.
When police examined the rest of the hard drive they discovered he had
searched for web pages about 'people who get away with murder in
shows'.
He posted violent scenes from television soap EastEnders on YouTube
and had a fixation with crime drama Trial and Retribution
He also penned a soap opera-style plot in which he fantasised about a
character called Daniel Bartlam killing 'Jackie', his mother.
A source close to the case told the Daily Mail: 'He comes across as
being very mature but there is a distinct lack of emotion. If he was
an adult he could be considered a psychopath.'
The product of a broken home, Bartlam had been obsessed with horror
films since the age of eight and watched the gruesome Saw 3D movie
hours before the murder.
He was convicted of his mother's murder in February following a
two-week trial, but it was only after his sentencing on Monday that Mr
Justice Flaux lifted reporting restrictions which prevented him from
being named.
Sentencing Bartlam to life with a minimum of 16 years for the
'senseless and grotesque killing', the judge said the murder involved
a high degree of planning, and Bartlam remained 'extremely dangerous'.
During his trial, the jury were told he was a 'young man who immersed
himself in a fantasy world; fantasy words he wrote, television drama,
films he accessed by the internet and other internet sites'.
Prosecutor Sean Smith added: 'The boundaries between real life and
fiction became very, very tragically blurred.'
Bartlam, who is now 15, initially told police he had a good
relationship with his mother.
On the night of the murder he claimed to have been confronted by a
masked intruder at the property in Redhill, Nottingham, when he got up
to use the toilet. He said the man threw a hammer at him before
fleeing and that he then found his mother's body on the floor of her
burning bedroom. He said he panicked and fled with his brother and
their dog.
Bartlam was charged two days after the killing. In an outburst at the
secure unit he was remanded to soon after, he threatened to 'kill' a
fellow patient, 'like I killed my mum'.
He denied murder, offering to admit manslaughter on the basis that he
snapped after being branded a 'f****** freak' by his mother.
Prosecutors refused to accept the plea and Bartlam will begin his
sentence in a young offenders' institution.
Bartlam's father Adrian, a successful businessman, separated from his
mother in 2005, shortly after the birth of their other child, a boy
who is now six.
Until then, Bartlam had attended Greenholme, a Nottingham preparatory
school which closed last year, and Dagfa, a private boys' school.
But financial pressures meant that following his parents' separation,
Bartlam was sent to a Roman Catholic state school, where he failed to
settle.
In 2010, he was referred to a school counsellor after telling pupils
his tie, which he named 'Fred', was trying to hurt him.
But just six weeks before the killing, mental health assessors
concluded that Bartlam posed little or no risk to himself or others.
A Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust spokesman said: 'Due to patient
confidentiality we are unable to provide any further comment.'
Mrs Bartlam's parents, who asked not to be named, said in a statement:
'There are no winners here because not only have we lost Jacqui, but
we have lost Daniel too.'
Coronation Street has been nicknamed 'the most violent place in
Britain', with ten characters killed off in the past two years. A tram
disaster in December 2010 took the lives of four characters, while
rapist Frank Foster was murdered last month.
An ITV spokesman said the channel took 'careful steps to ensure that
pre-watershed drama was appropriate for a family audience'.
Culled from Daily Mail
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