Between 26 July and 12 August: In total Blackwell spends £30,000 during a two week trip around the US and Barbados.

  

Brian Blackwell's mental condition is untreatable

Blackwell told his girlfriend Amal Saba that money came from tennis sponsorship.

Thu 30 Jun 2005

AN ACADEMICALLY gifted public schoolboy nicknamed "The Brains" by his devoted elderly parents was jailed for life yesterday after he admitted killing them before using their credit cards in a £30,000 spending spree with his girlfriend.

Brian Blackwell, 19, bludgeoned the couple to death in July last year, then left their bodies to rot in the family home while he embarked on a six-week trip around the United States and the Caribbean with his girlfriend, Amal Saba.

Blackwell's actions were driven by obsessive fantasies of unlimited success and power - a symptom of his narcissistic personality disorder.

And yesterday he pleaded guilty to double manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

His company director father, Sydney Blackwell, 72, and his mother, Jacqueline, 61, an antiques dealer, were found dead at their £350,000 bungalow in the village of Melling, Merseyside.

They had been beaten with a claw hammer and stabbed up to 50 times with a kitchen knife.

It is thought Mr Blackwell was sitting down when the attack began and had tried to reach a window before being felled by repeated blows.

Blackwell wept in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court as his lawyer read out a statement, which expressed his remorse.

In it, he said that he missed his parents "more than anything in the world". He added: "The guilt will punish and haunt me for 24 hours a day for the rest of my life." He had been charged with murder, but prosecutors accepted his manslaughter pleas after five experts said he was suffering from a disorder.

Police are still not clear about the sequence of events that led him to kill his parents, but David Steer, QC, prosecuting, told the court that his killing rage is likely to have been prompted by their discovering his travel plans and thwarting them.

A feature of narcissistic personality disorder is for sufferers to fly into a rage if their fantasy world is threatened.

The murders took place on 25 July, the day before Blackwell was due to fly to the US with Ms Saba for a holiday. He spent the night with his girlfriend before taking her to the US on a trip that began with a £2,200 a night, three-night stay in the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel in New York.

He had told her he was Britain's No1 ranked junior tennis player and that he had received £70,000 sponsorship from Nike. The couple returned home on 12 August and Blackwell stayed with Ms Saba's family in Childwell, Liverpool.

But on Sunday, 5 September, the decomposed bodies of Mr and Mrs Blackwell, who were often away from home, were discovered.

Hours later, detectives arrested Blackwell, who had spent most of the summer living with his girlfriend.

He first told police that he had been unable to enter his home and believed that his parents were away on holiday.

Blackwell initially denied the murders and police reported that he believed himself capable of outsmarting the charge.

DI Williams said: "He was growing in confidence with the police; he felt that perhaps he could outwit us in the long term." But yesterday he pleaded guilty.

Sentencing Blackwell, Mr Justice Royce said he had shown "breathtaking callousness" in his "chilling" crime.

He said he had taken into account that Blackwell's condition was untreatable and was likely to continue throughout his life.

Ms Saba attended the sentencing. She declined to discuss the case, but released a statement describing her "enormous shock" at discovering what her former boyfriend had done.

Girlfriend taken in by whirlwind of luxury as victims lay dead

WAITING in the first-class lounge at Manchester airport last July, Amal Saba could not quite believe her good fortune. Ahead lay a luxurious weekend in the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan with her glamorous new boyfriend.

Brian Blackwell, 19, said he was a professional tennis player and had written her a cheque for £39,000, half her new salary as his manager.

Before their £30,000 trip came to a close they would taste the high life in Miami, Barbados and San Francisco. Yet Blackwell was living a lie.

As the couple moved from one luxury suite to another, the bodies of Blackwell's elderly parents lay undisturbed in their £350,000 bungalow in the leafy village of Melling, Merseyside, the victim of their son's violent hand.

The day before the young couple's departure, Blackwell, a brilliant student, known as "The Brains" had been hanging pictures in his bedroom.

When his parents, Sydney, 72, and mother Jacqueline, 61, returned from an evening meal, an argument broke out with his father and Blackwell beat him to death with the hammer.

He then stabbed his mother between 20 and 30 times and left her body in the bath.

Blackwell had a spun a Walter Mitty-style fantasy in which he claimed to be a tennis player about to hit the big time with a £70,000 sponsorship deal and a place in the French Open. He had applied for 13 credit cards using false information.

There was little in Blackwell's background to foreshadow such horror. He grew up a quiet, bookish boy with a passion for science, who, his parents insisted, was destined to be "not just a doctor - but a surgeon". He attended Scarisbrick Hall, a private school in the Lancashire countryside, but was moved in 1998 to Liverpool College in Aigburth, another private school, costing £7,300 per year.

During his final year, he began dating Amal Saba, the 18-year-old daughter of a respected medical family, and both applied to read medicine at Nottingham University. In March 2004, he visited a Mercedes showroom to test-drive a £60,000 sports car.

The following month he wrote Ms Saba a cheque for £39,000 to be his manager, despite having only 9p in his bank account. In May he cashed in a £9,000 bond that his parents had invested to pay for his university education.

In June his mother contacted her local bank to warn them about him. Yet on 24 July, Blackwell used his father's credit cards to book flights from New York to Miami, Miami to San Francisco and San Francisco to London. The following day he once again used his father's card to book a first-class flight from Manchester to New York.

That evening he murdered his parents. Next day he and Ms Saba flew to New York, where he spent £3,900 on a three-night stay at the Plaza Hotel.

The couple returned home on 12 August, and Blackwell stayed with Ms Saba's family after explaining that he was locked out of his house until his parents returned from Majorca. A week later he returned to Liverpool College, to discover he had achieved A grades in maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish A-levels. The results opened the door to study medicine at Nottingham University in October.

It was a place he would never fill. On Sunday, 5 September, the bodies of Mr and Mrs Blackwell were discovered. When police broke down the door there was so much blood on the walls that at first they suspected the couple had been shot.

A few hours later Blackwell was arrested at Ms Saba's parents' home, where police discovered the rubber grip of a hammer and the handle of a knife in his sports bag.

Shocked neighbours painted a picture of a young boy who had a strict upbringing and had huge expectations heaped on his shoulders.

Tommy Sheldon, 75, a retired Royal Navy seaman, said: "They were a nice family, very private. Brian was very clever, he would play tennis at the local club and study hard. His mother was inclined to be strict with him."

Living a make-believe life of luxury as father and mother lay dead WAITING in the first-class lounge at Manchester airport last July, Amal Saba could not quite believe her good fortune. Ahead lay a luxurious weekend in the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan with her glamorous new boyfriend.

Brian Blackwell, 19, had claimed to be a professional tennis player and had written her a cheque for £39,000, half her new salary as his manager.

Before their £30,000 trip came to a close they would taste the high life in Miami, Barbados and San Francisco, yet Blackwell was living a lie.

As the couple moved from one luxury suite to another, the bodies of Brian Blackwell's elderly parents lay undisturbed in their £350,000 bungalow in the leafy village of Melling, Merseyside, the victim of their son's violent hand.

The day before the young couple's departure, Brian Blackwell, a brilliant student, known as "the brains" had been hanging pictures in his bedroom. When his parents, Sydney, 72, and mother Jacqueline, 61, returned from an evening meal, an argument broke out with his father and Blackwell beat him to death with the hammer. He then stabbed his mother between 20 and 30 times and left her body in the bath.

Blackwell had a spun a Walter Mitty-style fantasy in which he claimed to be a tennis player about to hit the big time with a £70,000 sponsorship deal and a place in the French Open. In order to finance his imaginary career, Blackwell had applied for 13 credit cards using false information. He had also tried to take out a number of personal loans and used his father's documents to obtain credit.

Yet there was little in the family's early background to foreshadow such horror.

His mother had moved to Merseyside after the collapse of her first marriage and it was here in 1982 that she met Sydney Blackwell, a retail executive. At the age of 43 she became pregnant after years of trying and was devoted to little Brian, but, according to neighbours, both parents were excessively protective.

Brian Blackwell grew up a quiet, bookish boy with a passion for science, who, his parents insisted, was destined to be "not just a doctor - but a surgeon". He attended Scarisbrick Hall, a private school set in the Lancashire countryside, but was moved in 1998 to Liverpool College in Aigburth, a private school costing £7,300 per year.

During his final year, he began dating Amal Saba, the 18-year-old daughter of a respected medical family, and both applied to read medicine at Nottingham University. It is believed his story of being a professional tennis player was concocted in early 2004. In March of that year, he visited a Mercedes showroom to test-drive a £60,000 sports car.

The following month he wrote Ms Saba a cheque for £39,000 to act as his manager, despite having only 9p in his bank account. In May he cashed in a £9,000 bond that his parents had invested to pay for his university education in order to buy her a car. He also tried to open a bank account by claiming he was a professional tennis player.

In June his mother, who was becoming increasingly concerned about her son's behaviour, contacted her local bank to warn them. Yet on 24 July, Blackwell used his father's credit cards to book flights from New York to Miami, Miami to San Francisco and San Francisco to London. The following day he once again used his father's card to book a first-class flight from Manchester to New York.

That evening he murdered both his parents. The next day Blackwell and Ms Saba flew to New York, where he spent £3,900 on a three-night stay at the Plaza hotel.

The couple eventually returned home on 12 August, and Blackwell stayed with Ms Saba's family after explaining that he was locked out of his house until his parents returned from Majorca. A week later he returned to Liverpool College, to discover he had achieved A passes in maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish A-levels. The results opened the door to study medicine at Nottingham University in October.

It was a place he would never fill. On Sunday, 5 September, the decomposed bodies of Mr and Mrs Blackwell were discovered after a neighbour called at their home and reported an unusual smell. When police broke down the door there was so much blood on the walls that at first they suspected the couple had been shot.

A few hours later Blackwell was arrested at Ms Saba's parents' home, where police discovered the rubber grip of the hammer and the handle of the knife in his sports bag.

In the village of Melling, where Blackwell had grown up, neighbours expressed shock at the macabre murder, but painted a picture of a young boy who had a strict upbringing and had huge expectations heaped on his shoulders.

Tommy Sheldon, 75, a retired Royal Navy seaman, said: "They were a nice family, very private. Brian was very clever, he would play tennis at the local club and study hard. His mother was inclined to be strict with him."

Dando killer and Reagan gunman had same disorder

SUFFERERS of Narcissistic Personality Disorder have a grandiose sense of self- importance and entitlement and can fly into a rage if that sense is challenged.

They are manipulative, confrontational, show a lack of empathy and are pre-occupied with success, power, brilliance, ideal love and beauty. Kerry Daynes, a consultant forensic psychologist in Manchester, said: "Many psychopaths have narcissistic traits and you most often see NPD when treating psychopaths."

Other criminals with NPD include John Hinckley, who shot US president Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Barry George, who killed the TV presenter Jill Dando.

KAREN MCVEIGH