The defendant said he was influenced by tv show "Dexter". Photo / Getty Images
The defendant said he was influenced by tv show "Dexter". Photo / Getty Images
A boarding school pupil in the UK who is accused of trying to murder two roommates with a claw hammer began researching serial killers after watching the television show Dexter, he has told a jury.
The teenager denied deliberately attacking two fellow pupils and a housemaster at Bundell’s school in Tiverton, Devon, last June, claiming he was sleepwalking at the time.
The two injured boys suffered fractured skulls, and one sustained injuries to his spleen, ribs and lung.
The trial at Exeter Crown Court had previously heard how the 17-year-old had researched high-profile murderers, including Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Prosecutors also revealed how he had also conducted internet searches on subjects including: youngest spree killers; murder with hammers; youngest serial killer near Exeter; school massacres; and what happens if a 15-year-old murders someone.
Giving evidence for the first time in the case, the youth, who cannot be identified because of his age, claimed he had been inspired to look up such subjects after watching the US crime drama Dexter, which is about a serial killer.
He said: “I tried to find out more about it. My autism makes me more obsessive about certain topics, any topics I find interesting.
“I don’t really feel anything about my autism, it has always been in me and I never noticed it.”
He said he researched murders and gruesome stories because they were linked to serial killers and had looked up information about the length of prison sentences because: “I am just curious.”
Asked by his barrister if he had wanted to become a serial killer, he replied: “I have a good life here, why would I be interested in destroying my life?”
Actor Michael C Hall played the titular character in the television show Dexter. Photo / AP
No memory
The teenager said he had no memory of the incident and had come around to find the room covered in blood.
“I don’t remember doing anything. The only rational thing I could think of was, ‘I was sleepwalking’.
“All I could see was blood. I could not see anything. I did not hear anything. Then I remember walking up the corridor,” he told the jury.
He explained that he slept with a hammer under his pillow “for protection from the zombie apocalypse”.
“I thought the apocalypse was real and I do today. The apocalypse is the end of the world,” he said.
The defendant, who was 16 at the time of the attacks, also said that he was very stressed about being blackmailed for money by a woman over nude photos of himself he had sent her.
He said: “She sent some pictures of herself to me on Snapchat. It was just her face. She said she lived in Washington. I did send her some nude pictures of myself, I think about half a dozen.”
The boy told the court she had started to ask for money and he had sent her around £1000 ($2070) but was beginning to run out of money.
“I did not tell my mum, dad or auntie about the blackmail because it was embarrassing. I felt very stressed about the blackmailing.
“I thought she would post the pictures to all my followers, she had requested to follow all my followers. It was on my mind every second.”
In other evidence he said he had produced a list of people he did not like which included Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, saying she was a “back-stabber” who had “back-stabbed Rishi”.
The boy denies three charges of attempted murder and his trial continues.
