A man who murdered his lodger in a “ferocious attack” before cutting up his body and dropping packages of his dismembered limbs along Bournemouth seafront has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years.
Benjamin Atkins, 49, was convicted by a jury at Winchester Crown Court in May of the murder of 49-year-old Simon Shotton, whose legs were found in packages by a member of the public on the Manor Steps Zig Zag footpath in the Boscombe area of the Dorset seaside resort on August 26 2023.
Mr Shotton had been living in a tent in the garden of the flat Atkins shared with his girlfriend, 39-year-old Debbie Pereira, in Aylesbury Road, Boscombe, giving the defendants drugs in lieu of paying rent.
Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Mrs Justice Stacey said Atkins may have initially been acting in self-defence when a fight broke out on the night of the killing, but said the level of violence inflicted upon him was “extreme”.
Pereira, who was acquitted of murder but convicted of perverting the course of justice, was jailed for four years after the court heard she “hid” in her bedroom while Atkins carried out the brutal attack – but helped clean up afterwards.
Atkins had previously admitted perverting the course of justice and both defendants had admitted preventing the burial of a corpse.
Atkins admitted in court to killing Mr Shotton at the couple’s home and dismembering his body, but claimed he had acted out of self-defence.
In a victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Paul Cavin KC on Friday, Mr Shotton’s son Wesley , who was 19 when his father was killed, said his father struggled with drink and drugs which impacted the amount of time he spent with his children, but that he was “filled with love and care” for them.
He branded his father’s killer “evil” as he said: “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.”
Describing his father, he said: “I’ve known for a long time that life wasn’t easy for my dad, sometimes it seemed he struggled to show his true personality and character. He would use drink and drugs to escape the battles in his mind.
“He wasn’t perfect, he made mistakes, but he tried to do things to better those mistakes. He would make decisions that were tough to protect us. He wouldn’t have wanted us to see him when he was struggling.
“Whatever others may have thought of him, he was my dad, loved beyond words and irreplaceable to me. I never liked the idea of dad being involved in drugs, despite his struggles he was my dad who I was proud of.”
During the trial, Atkins said that the lethal argument had started over the victim demanding payment of a debt.
Mr Cavin told the court that Atkins was recorded after his arrest by a secret microphone in a prison 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 also recorded as responding to a question by his co-defendant on whether he had any regrets by saying: “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 f******.”
The trial heard that after killing Mr Shotton, Atkins and Pereira sold the victim’s mobile phone in a Cash Creators shop in Boscombe which police used to track down the pair.
Atkins then went on to cut up Mr Shotton’s body using a hacksaw in the couple’s garden under a makeshift tent before burning the victim’s head on a fire.
When it took longer to burn than he expected, he wrapped the remaining body parts up and disposed of them around Bournemouth seafront, with Mr Shotton’s torso discovered in a suitcase in Boscombe Chine Gardens on September 6.
Describing his actions to dismember the body, Atkins said in court: “I won’t deny it, I used copious amounts of various drugs.
“I pulled his body into the garden, covered him up. Later in the evening, when Debs was asleep, I went into the garden and I cut him up.
“I wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t under the influence, I wouldn’t have cut him up, I was scared, I was traumatised, I was panicked, I was under extreme stress as well as under the influence.
“What I done was truly awful, it’s horrendous what I have done and I deserve to be punished for what I have done.
“I am sorry to his family, I am sorry to my family. It’s difficult for me to be remorseful to a man who was trying to kill me in my own house.”
Mrs Justice Stacey said both Atkins and Pereira have “consistently lied” about what happened.
Addressing Atkins, she said: “Your dismemberment, disposal and concealment of Mr Shotton’s body was particularly gruesome. Your callousness was shocking.
“You still refuse to say where the rest of his head is. I do not accept your remorse is genuine. You may have initially acted to some extent in self-defence, but with the ferocity of your attack, you intended to kill Simon.
“The disposal of his body will continue to cause great pain and distress to his family.”
Sentencing Pereira, the judge said: “You were a joint participant in perverting the course of justice.
“You knew Simon’s body was being chopped up in your utility room. You helped Atkins get rid of and sell Simon’s belongings.
“You acted as decoy while Atkins stole a hacksaw to cut up Simon’s body and it must have been you who did the thorough cleaning afterwards, which must have taken many days.
“Yours was a secondary, but not minor role and the effect of the crime on the wider community cannot be underestimated.
“As a consequence of the help you gave Atkins, parts of Simon have never been found. You were in it together, before and after Atkins killed Simon.
“You could have called the police at any time. You did nothing to help Simon. He was a vulnerable victim.”
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