A man has been jailed after he murdered his lodger before he dumped his dismembered body parts in packages and a suitcase. Benjamin Atkins, 49, was convicted of the murder of Simon Shotton after he scattered the packages of his dismembered legs along Boscombe seafront in Bournemouth. His partner Debbie Pereira, 39, was also sentenced at Winchester Crown Court for perverting the course of justice and preventing a burial of a corpse.
Today he has been jailed for 19 years. Atkins earlier confessed to killing his lodger inside the home he shares with his partner. He claimed that he acted out of self-defence.
The 49-year-old previously told the court that Mr Shotton had been staying for a short period in their house and was supplying them with drugs in replacement of rent. Atkins further claimed that he got into a row with the victim demanding payment of a debt. Paul Cavin KC, prosecuting, revealed a recorded conversation between Atkings and Pereira in a prison van after his arrest.
He told her 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 Shot.