Public schoolboy killed parents to fund US trip

A PUBLIC schoolboy who bludgeoned and stabbed his elderly parents to death before using their credit cards to fund a €45,000 spree was jailed for life yesterday.

Brian Blackwell, 19, killed his mother and father in a “frenzied rage” at their €520,000 bungalow in the leafy village of Melling, Merseyside, last July.

At Liverpool Crown Court he admitted the manslaughter of Sydney Blackwell, 72, and his wife Jacqueline, 61, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard that baby-faced Blackwell, a straight-A student who had won a place to study medicine at university, suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The condition made Blackwell obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, power and brilliance.

He created a web of lies about his life. These included claims that he was a professional tennis player who had secured a sponsorship deal with Nike.

He also lavished “expensive” jewellery on girlfriend Amal Saba - although the gems later turned out to be cheap costume pieces.

The compulsive liar even bought a Ford Ka car for his pretty girlfriend using savings intended for his university education and promised to take her to the USA.

But as his lies became more elaborate and expensive, his fantasy world began to collapse, particularly as his parents were growing concerned over his spending. It is believed the discovery of his holiday plans precipitated the row which led to their deaths.

On July 25 he attacked his frail father, a retired accountant with a heart condition, with a claw hammer before stabbing him 30 times with a carving knife.

He then turned on his mother, an antiques dealer, knocking her unconscious with the hammer before stabbing her 20 times.

Blackwell and Miss Saba, who had no idea of what had happened, flew Business Class to New York where they stayed in the Presidential Suite of the Plaza Hotel, running up a €3,290 bill over three days. They also spent time in Miami, San Francisco and Barbados before jetting back to Britain on August 12.

A week later he returned to his old school, the €10,500-a-year Liverpool College, to discover he had passed four A-levels all at grade A. The results gained him potential places at the universities of Nottingham and Edinburgh to study medicine in October.

But on Sunday September 5, the decomposed bodies of Mr and Mrs Blackwell were discovered.

They had been dead for several weeks when a neighbour called at their three-bedroom home and noticed an unusual smell and an infestation of flies.

Blackwell was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff of 12 years. The sentence means Blackwell will be eligible for parole in five years and seven months, but the judge indicated it was highly unlikely he would be released as his condition is untreatable.