Daniel Bartlam was just fourteen years old when he went into his mothers room and struck her repeatedly with a hammer before setting the house on fire. Bartlam would originally tell police that someone had broken into the home but soon the story fell through. Police would find a story that this teen killer had written which basically described step by step the murder that took place. Daniel Bartlam would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seventeen years
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Daniel Bartlam was dubbed the “Coronation Street killer” after beating his mother Jacqueline to death with a claw hammer at their home in 2011.
He then padded the 47-year old’s body with paper, doused it in petrol and set the house alight in a bid to cover his tracks.
At Daniel Bartlam trial it was revealed the youngster had copied a storyline from the ITV soap, which he loved.
Videos of the murdering Corrie character John Stape, with whom he was obsessed, were found on the teenager’s computer. Daniel Bartlam, now 22, was jailed for life in April 2012.
Trial judge Mr Justice Flaux told him the killing was “grotesque and senseless” and ordered him to serve a minimum of 16 years.
But now Jacqueline’s partner Simon Matters has received a letter from the Ministry of Justice telling him that Daniel Bartlam is to have his sentence reviewed as he has moved to an adult prison.
Simon says he is “horrified” by the decision, which he believes means his stepson may be out in as little as two years.
The 49-year-old added: “I am absolutely and utterly against this. I don’t believe that he can be rehabilitated.”
The letter from the Ministry of Justice reads: “This review will look at whether his tariff can be reduced as the belief is that a youngster has the ability to change more rapidly than adult offenders.”
It reveals that the review will happen late this year or early next, and adds: “You have the right to submit a victim personal statement for the High Court to consider.”
Simon said: “I was always told categorically that he would serve his 16 years. I thought he’d come out in 2028 and that would be it and I’d cross that bridge in 2028.
“I never thought I’d be crossing that bridge this year or next year.”
Simon met Land Registry worker Jacqueline, from Redhill, Notts, on a night out in 2008.
He began to spend time with Daniel and his little brother, Jacqueline’s sons from a previous marriage. But as their relationship progressed, Simon began to find Bartlam’s behaviour odd.
He discovered soiled towels in the teenager’s room, as well as a huge stack of secret 18-rated horror movies like Saw.
To his disgust, he also discovered some of Jacqueline’s underwear stashed in a briefcase.
The arguments between Daniel and his mum escalated, with Simon having to step in to prevent Bartlam hitting her. Simon said: “There was a weakness on Jacqui’s part to stand up to him.
“There was probably a bit of a hole in the parenting, but then who was I to judge?”
Daniel became increasingly introverted and would sit in his room, writing violent stories.
In one, he described a character called Daniel Bartlam who killed his mother with a hammer.
The shocking fantasy became horrifying reality on April 25, 2011, when Simon had been working away for two weeks.
Returning home on Easter Monday, he saw on the TV news that there had been a fire in Nottingham and immediately thought: “Daniel.”
Now, Simon is terrified that twisted Daniel Bartlam has tricked prison officials with his good behaviour.
He said: “With what he did, and the horrific nature of it, and the way he was so manipulative, my only fear is the fact that he will have manipulated the Parole Board and pretended he’s better.
“That’s my only fear. I don’t fear him.”
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After fire ravaged a house in the quiet suburban street of Georgia Drive, Redhill, neighbours learned doting mum Jacqui Bartlam had been found dead inside.
One said at the time “you see things like that on the TV but when you know the person, you just can’t believe it”.
The fire was no accident. Police found Jacqui, 47, had died from head injuries and they were treating her death as murder.
Soon their attention turned her own son – 14-year-old Daniel Bartlam.
Bartlam lived with his mother, younger brother and dog in Georgia Drive.
He was a member of a film club, liked Star Wars, Doctor Who and playing games on his computer.
But he had developed an obsession with Coronation Street villain John Stape, who battered stalker Charlotte Hoyle with a hammer before leaving her body in the wreckage of a tram crash to cover up his crime.
Bartlam immersed himself in his fantasy world to such an extent the boundaries between real life and fiction became tragically blurred, the court at his trial had heard.
On Easter Monday 2011, he acted out a script he had written on his computer – about a boy called Daniel Bartlam who bludgeoned his mother to death.
As his mother lay in bed, Bartlam struck her seven times on the head and face with a claw hammer.
Then he rolled her body onto the floor, packed newspaper around it, poured petrol on it and set it on fire.
Bartlam left a lump hammer nearby, making it appear as though it was dumped by an intruder who had escaped out of the window.
He then wiped the weapon he had used with cleaning fluid and hid it in his bedroom, before he escaped with his brother and dog from the burning house
Like the boy in his play, Daniel pretended to police that the attack had been by an intruder.
But unlike the ending to his fictional play, Bartlam did not get away with murder.
He was convicted by a jury.
The judge gave him a life sentence and ordered he serve a minimum of 16 years before parole, and he described it as a “grotesque and senseless killing”.
“Unfortunately for you it was more difficult to destroy a body than you thought and the pathologist, who examined your mother’s body, was able to say with certainty that the attack had been with a claw hammer, rather than the lump hammer you left in the room,” he said.
Bartlam told police the intruder attacked his mum, but police found versions of the script on his computer.
Realising the finger of suspicion would turn on him, he admitted he killed his mother, but claimed that he had been driven to it by her physical and verbal abuse.
This gave him a defence in law of “loss of control” which, if proved, would reduce an allegation of murder to manslaughter.
But, by their unanimous guilty verdict to murder, the jury rejected his defence.
The judge said: “Whilst there clearly were arguments between you and your mother, not untypical between mothers and their teenage children, I am quite satisfied there was no physical or verbal abuse by your mother, such as you alleged in your evidence at trial.”
At the time the Post asked for reporting restrictions to be lifted that prevented Bartlam, then 15, from being named.https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nottinghampost.com%2Fnews%2Flocal-news%2Fchilling-story-behind-nottinghamshire-boy-4603792&cre=bottom&cip=31&view=web
Bartlam had attended independent primary school Greenholme, Lenton, and then Dagfa School, Beeston.
He moved to Christ the King School, Arnold, after his parents’ divorce.
The court heard in 2010 he was reported missing from home by his mother and was found by police walking around Nuthall.
In May of that year, he was referred to a school counsellor after an incident in class, where he became upset and began shouting and screaming at his tie which he called “Fred”. He told classmates that his tie was trying to hurt him.
Daniel Bartlam revealed during counselling he was having bad dreams, felt sad and angry and was hearing voices telling him to act.
Shaun Smith QC, who prosecuted the case in 2012, had told Nottingham Crown Court: “He said the ‘voice’ tells him to hurt particular people who have upset him and made him angry and that he was almost fully controlled by it and finding it hard to resist.”
By March 2011, just six weeks before the killing, a mental health assessment was carried out at Thorneywood Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. It said Bartlam demonstrated no mental illness and he was judged as being little or no risk or threat to himself or others, the court was told.
Before his trial, Daniel Bartlam was examined by mental health experts for the prosecution and defence and they agreed that he did not have a psychiatric or psychological condition.
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