A person who murdered his lodger in a “ferocious attack” earlier than chopping up his physique and dropping packages of his dismembered limbs alongside Bournemouth seafront has been jailed for all times with a minimal of 19 years.
Benjamin Atkins, 49, was convicted by a jury at Winchester crown court docket in Could for the homicide of 49-year-old Simon Shotton, whose legs had been present in packages by a member of the general public on the Manor Steps Zig Zag footpath within the Boscombe space of the Dorset seaside resort in August 2023.
Shotton had been residing in a tent within the backyard of the flat Atkins shared together with his girlfriend, 39-year-old Debbie Pereira, in Aylesbury Street, Boscombe, giving the defendants medication in lieu of hire.
Sentencing Atkins on Friday, the choose, Mrs Justice Stacey, mentioned he could have initially been appearing in self-defence when a combat broke out on the night time of the killing, however mentioned the extent of violence he inflicted was “extreme”.
Pereira, who was acquitted of homicide however convicted of perverting the course of justice, was jailed for 4 years after the court docket heard she “hid” in her bed room whereas Atkins carried out the brutal assault however helped clear up afterwards.
Atkins had beforehand admitted perverting the course of justice and each defendants had admitted stopping the burial of a corpse.
Atkins admitted in court docket to killing Shotton on the couple’s dwelling and dismembering his physique, however claimed he had acted in self-defence.
In a sufferer affect assertion learn out by the prosecutor, Paul Cavin KC, on Friday, Shotton’s son Wesley, who was 19 when the homicide happened, mentioned his father had struggled with drink and medicines, which had an impact on the period of time he spent together with his youngsters, however that he was “filled with love and care” for them.
He referred to as his father’s killer “evil”, saying: “Your children should be ashamed of what you have done. You wrecked so many more lives than just my dad’s.
“No sentence will ever be enough for what you have done. There is nothing I can say that can truly capture what you have left me feeling. You knew what you were doing.”
Throughout the trial, Atkins mentioned the argument had began over the sufferer demanding cost of a debt.
Cavin informed the court docket that Atkins was recorded after his arrest by a secret microphone in a jail van telling Pereira that “if he admitted that he cooked Simon’s head up and ate his cheeks, ‘would it get me off the hook?’”
He was additionally recorded as saying, when requested by his co-defendant whether or not he had any regrets: “I’ll look ’em straight in the eye and say: ‘Yeah. I’d do it again and again and again. If you let me go today, I’d find another one and do it again.’
“‘Drug dealers and pushers. Kill, decapitate and eat the fuckers.”
The trial heard that after the killing of Shotton, Atkins and Pereira offered the sufferer’s cell phone in a Money Creators store in Boscombe, which police used to trace down them down.
Atkins lower up Shotton’s physique utilizing a hacksaw within the couple’s backyard beneath a makeshift tent earlier than burning the sufferer’s head on a hearth.
When it took longer to burn than he anticipated, he wrapped up the remaining physique components and disposed of them round Bournemouth seafront, with Shotton’s torso found in a suitcase in Boscombe Chine Gardens in September.
Describing dismembering the physique, Atkins informed the court docket: “I won’t deny it, I used copious amounts of various drugs … I wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t under the influence.”
