Man who murdered and dismembered lodger has sentence increased

A man who murdered and dismembered a lodger before leaving packages of body parts along the Bournemouth seafront has had his minimum prison term increased at the Court of Appeal. Benjamin Atkins, 49, was convicted of the murder of 49 year old Simon Shotton, whose legs were found by a member of the public in the Boscombe area of the Dorset seaside resort in August 2023.

Mr Shotton had been living in a tent in the garden of the flat Atkins shared with his girlfriend, 39 year old Debbie Pereira, in Aylesbury Road, Boscombe, giving the defendants drugs in lieu of paying rent. In July, a judge at Winchester Crown Court jailed Atkins for a minimum of 19 years and handed a four-year sentence to Pereira after she was acquitted of murder but convicted of perverting the course of justice.

However, following a reference from the Solicitor General under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme, both sentences were increased at a hearing on Tuesday. Atkins will now face a minimum term of 21 years, while Pereira’s sentence for perverting the course of justice was increased to six years.

Louise Oakley, for the Solicitor General, told the Court of Appeal that a fight broke out between Mr Shotton and Atkins on August 18 2023. During his trial, Atkins admitted to killing Mr Shotton at the couple’s home and dismembering his body but claimed he had acted out of self-defence.

Ms Oakley stated: "The learned (sentencing) judge concluded that the violence inflicted on Simon Shotton was ferocious and unnecessary."

The barrister conveyed to the court that Atkins had "systematically" dismembered Mr Shotton’s body "over a number of days", and also attempted to burn the lodger’s head in a fire pit within a back garden. She revealed: "Only tiny fragments