A teenage boy has been found guilty of murdering a woman at her home in Notts. Jayne Garfitt and Rebecca Sherdley report...

---

WHEN the teenager raised his hand to strike a woman over the head with a claw hammer several times, his fantasy life had finally become reality.

He had already written a story in which he played the main character – someone who got away with rape and murder. In the story, he described the character murdering a woman with a hammer, and then setting the house on fire.

And in real life he, too, set the body of his victim alight in her bedroom.

The boy, who cannot be named, was found guilty of murder at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday.

Officers who searched the boy's room found violent drawings and writings, along with a claw hammer and a container of cleaning fluid. Violent video games and films, including The Amityville Horror and Final Destination – suitable only for people aged over 18 – were also found.

They discovered that websites he had looked up included "Man kills wife and makes it"; "How to get away with murder"; and "People who get away with murder in shows".

And forensic examinations of his computer also found footage of violent scenes from Trial and Retribution, EastEnders, Hollyoaks, and Coronation Street – the latter including the scene where the character John Stape kills a woman with a hammer.

Prosecutor Shaun Smith QC told the court: "He was, we say, obsessed with John Stape, the Coronation Street man who killed a woman with a hammer and made it look like she has been in injured in a crash."

He said the boy 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."

He added: "And he did that to such an extent that the prosecution say the boundaries between real life and fiction became very, very tragically blurred."

The story was written by the boy four days before he murdered the woman.

He thought he had deleted the story completely before committing his crime. But the mistake he made was to not check the computer's auto save, where updated versions were recovered by experts.

Despite this evidence, the boy had an entirely difficult version of events, which investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Kate Meynell said was very difficult to pick holes in because it was so consistent.

He said he had seen someone else, wearing a black hooded top and trousers, commit the crime at the property. He said this man had thrown a hammer and he had picked it up and thrown it back, before noticing the victim had blood all over her face and there was a fire.

Forensic officers did find a lump hammer in the room where the fire started, but it was not consistent with the woman's injuries, which were caused by a claw hammer.

She was found to have been struck at least seven times to the back of her head and shoulders. Prosecutors suggested the lump hammer was planted there by the boy as a decoy.

Ultimately the child's story just did not add up – and one day, while on remand, the youth cracked and confessed to killing the woman.

But the teenager still refused to admit murder – insisting instead that the killing was the result of a loss of self-control due to personal circumstances.

This could have reduced his crime from murder to manslaughter – which he knew from his internet research – if only he could convince people to believe him.

The boy also said he had heard voices prior to the murder. After an incident at his school he was referred to a school counsellor.

He said he continued to hear voices, but a mental health assessment six weeks before the killing concluded that he demonstrated no mental illness or emergent mental health process.

"We think he thought he could commit the perfect murder and get away with it," said DCI Meynell. "I think it's a horrific crime both as a police officer and personally. It's shocking.

"The level of violence, the degree of planning and the extent of his lies is not only shocking but it's also chilling that a boy could do this.

"I've never dealt with something like this and I'm not aware of any other case in this country."

An ITV spokesperson said: "ITV takes careful steps to ensure that pre-watershed drama is appropriate for a family audience, and the Stape murder scenes in Coronation Street were fully compliant. "With regards to Trial and Retribution, this is a matter for parents as it is a post-watershed programme and aimed at an adult audience."