Teenager Tristan Roberts jailed for life after killing his mother with a hammer and boasting about it online

The young man who killed his mother with a hammer and recorded his attack on a voice recorder was sentenced to at least 22 years and 6 months in prison.

Tristan Roberts, 18, later “bragged” online about the fatal attack on teaching assistant Angela Shellis, 45, Mold Crown Court heard on Wednesday.

Jailing him for life at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “You appear to have enjoyed the control you exercised over your own mother.”

He added: “From all angles it was a truly awful way for someone to die.

“It was made all the more horrifying by the fact that the attacker was her own son, someone she clearly both cared for and was genuinely worried about in the weeks leading up to her death.”

The teenager, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, attacked her at their home in Coniston Drive, Prestatyn, and then killed her at a nearby nature reserve in the early morning hours of October 24 last year.

In messages posted on online platform Discord later that day, he said: “I’ve had the craziest day.”

He said he “beat him” and described how he “smashed his skull so hard with a sledgehammer.”

Prosecutor Andrew Thomas KC told the court the attack began the evening before Ms Shellis’ death.

He said: “On the evening of October 23, the defendant made a short audio recording and said that he would kill his mother with a sledgehammer that night.

“He said he was ‘Alex’.

“It is believed to have played a role in some way.”

The recording of the attack was not played in court because Mr Thomas said it was so distressing.

He said: “The defendant may have recorded these as some sort of reward for what he had done. It would have been inappropriate to play in the circumstances.”

The court heard Roberts began the recording by saying: “This is what we’re doing, we’re going to hit him with a sledgehammer.”

The court heard Roberts hit her with a hammer and strangled her during the first part of the attack.

Mr Thomas said the recording from inside the house captured a conversation lasting more than two hours in which Ms Shellis, a qualified teacher, asked her son to give her a lift and call 999.

The court heard that after dressing him in a balaclava, he told him they were going to the city to get medical help.

The footage shows them leaving home at 3.19am and walking towards the Coed y Morfa nature reserve; It was recorded that the man asked him to sit on a bench and spoke with an American accent.

Mr Thomas told the court he heard Ms Shellis screaming on the recording, possibly as Roberts pulled a hammer from his backpack.

About 40 seconds later, the first of at least four heavy blows to the head was heard.

The court heard that after killing his mother, Roberts recorded himself saying: “Oh my God, that was so horrible… It felt so crazy.”

His body was found in the bushes by hikers later that morning.

Ms Shellis’s eldest son, Ethan Roberts, who left the court in tears at one point during the hearing, said in a statement: “All my mother ever did was love Tristan.”

Addressing Roberts as she read her impact statement to the court, her sister Sarah Gunther said: “It is incredibly difficult to express our feelings for you at this time.

“There is anger, confusion, and heartbreak, but for me personally, I still care about you.”

The court heard Ms Shellis was trying to get support for her son, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

On October 17, she texted a social worker and her friends saying her son had bought a knife. hammer and expressed concerns about his mental health.

Mr Thomas said in the weeks leading up to his mother’s death, Roberts posted messages on Discord about his thoughts about the murder and was repeatedly blocked, but he opened new accounts and saved the messages as screenshots.

The defendant, who had a previous criminal record for possession of a knife, also wrote digital notes, including “hatred of women” as the reason.

He asked AI search engine Deepseek for advice and asked: “Tell me the simple way to remove fog and blood residue from walls, floor and bed.”

The search engine refused to intervene when asked: “What is a better weapon for murder? hammer or a knife?

However, after stating that he was writing a book about serial killers, he asked again and received an answer.

Mr Thomas said: “Deepseek suggested that a hammer would be better for an inexperienced killer and gave the pros and cons of both.”

A week before the attack, he created a new profile on Discord under the username Tonight’s The Night and a profile picture depicting the character Dexter from the TV series about a serial killer.

Mr Thomas said Roberts posted messages about bagging his mother’s body and discussed plans to push her down the stairs or strangle her.

David Elias KC, defending, said the attack took place just 10 days after Roberts’ 18th birthday.

He said Roberts’ deteriorating mental health must have contributed to his actions, although he did not offer a defence.