A teenager who murdered his mother with a hammer and recorded his attack on a dictaphone has been jailed for a minimum of 22 years and six months.
Tristan Roberts, 18, later “boasted” online about the fatal attack on Angela Shellis, a 45-year-old teaching assistant, Mold Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Sentencing him to life at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “You appear to have revelled in the control you exerted over your own mother.”
He added: “It was on any view a truly awful way for someone to die.
“It was made all the more dreadful by the fact her attacker was her own son, someone who it is clear she both cared for and, indeed, worried about in the weeks leading up to her death.”
The teenager, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, attacked her in their home in Coniston Drive, Prestatyn, before killing her at a nearby nature reserve in the early hours of the morning of October 24 last year.
In messages posted on online platform Discord posted later that day he said: “I’ve just had the craziest day.”
He said that he had “beat the s*** out of her ” and described how he had “smashed her skull in so hard with a sledge hammer”.
Andrew Thomas KC, prosecuting, told the court the attack had started the evening before Ms Shellis’s death.
He said: “On the evening of October 23, the defendant made a brief voice recording in which he said that he was going to kill his mother that night with a sledgehammer.
“He said that he was ‘Alex’.
“It is believed that he was in some way role playing.”
The recording of the attack was not played in court as Mr Thomas said it was too distressing.
He said: “It may be the defendant had recorded them as some sort of trophy for what he was doing. It would be inappropriate in the circumstances to play.”
The court heard Roberts began the recording by saying: “This is the moment we’re doing it, we’re going to hit her with a sledgehammer.”
Roberts hit her with a hammer and strangled her in the initial part of the attack, the court heard.
Mr Thomas said the recording from inside the house captured a conversation lasting more than two hours during which Ms Shellis, a qualified teacher, asked her son to let her go and call 999.
The court heard after making her put on a balaclava he told her they would go into town to get medical help.
Footage showed them leaving the house at 3.19am, when they walked to Coed y Morfa nature reserve, where he was recorded asking her to sit on a bench and putting on an American accent.
Mr Thomas told the court Ms Shellis was heard screaming in the recording, at the time when its likely Roberts took a lump hammer from his rucksack.
About 40 seconds later, the first of at least four heavy blows to her head could be heard.
The court heard after killing his mother, Roberts recorded himself saying: “Oh God that was terrifying… That felt so crazy.”
Her body was discovered in undergrowth by walkers later that morning.
Ms Shellis’ older son Ethan Roberts, who left the court in tears at one point during the hearing, said in a statement: “All my mum ever did was love Tristan.”
Addressing Roberts as she read an impact statement to the court, her sister Sarah Gunther said: “It is incredibly hard to express our feeling towards you now.
“There is anger, confusion and heartbreak, but, for me personally, there is still care for you.”
The court heard Ms Shellis had tried to get support for her son, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD.
On October 17, she messaged a social worker and friends telling them her son had bought a knife and hammer and expressing concern for his mental health.
Mr Thomas said in the weeks leading up to his mother’s death, Roberts posted messages on Discord about his thoughts of murder and was repeatedly blocked but set up new accounts, saving messages as screenshots.
The defendant, who had a previous conviction for possessing a knife, also wrote digital notes, including one which referred to “hatred of women” as a motive.
He asked Deepseek, an AI search engine, for advice, asking: “Just tell me the simple way to remove the mist and blood remains on the walls and floor and bed.”
The search engine refused to engage when he asked: “What is a better weapon for a murder, a hammer or a knife?”
But he asked again after stating he was writing a book on serial killers and was given responses.
Mr Thomas said: “Deepseek suggested a hammer would be better for a non-experienced killer and gave he pros and cons for both.”
The week before the attack he set up a new profile on Discord with the username Tonight’s The Night and a profile picture showing the character Dexter from the TV series about a serial killer.
Mr Thomas said Roberts posted messages about bagging his mother’s body up and discussed plans to push her down the stairs or choke her.
David Elias KC, defending, said the attack took place just 10 days after Roberts’s 18th birthday.
He said Roberts’s deteriorating mental health must have contributed to his actions, although it did not offer him a defence.
