Overview
- Tristan Roberts, sentenced Wednesday at Mold Crown Court, received life with a minimum term of 22 years and six months for murdering his mother, Angela Shellis.
- Prosecutors said he planned the killing for at least three weeks, buying a hammer and knives, researching murders online, and posting on Discord after repeated bans.
- A recovered dictaphone captured a hours-long assault that began at the family home and ended with a hammer attack at Prestatyn’s Coed y Morfa nature reserve, which CCTV also tracked.
- Roberts asked Deepseek, an AI search engine, for advice on weapons and cleaning blood; after he claimed to be writing a book, the tool compared a hammer and a knife, the court heard.
- Local officials referred the case to the North Wales Safeguarding Board after evidence that Shellis had sought help days earlier for her son’s mental health and weapon purchases.