Angela Shellis fought for her son all her life. She worked as a teaching assistant at a secondary school in Rhyl, giving up a better-paid position just so she could spend more time with her boys. She moved back to North Wales after her marriage broke down to be closer to her family. On social media, she wrote: "Home is where my boys are." And then one of those boys killed her.
Tristan Roberts, 18, from Prestatyn, was sentenced on March 25, 2026, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years and 6 months. He pleaded guilty to murdering his own mother. He showed no remorse.
He waited until his 18th birthday. Then he went shopping.
This is not a story about a sudden outburst of anger. Roberts planned the murder three weeks in advance, systematically and in cold blood. He knew what he was doing. And he also knew why he was waiting.
On October 13, 2025, the day of his 18th birthday, he headed to The Range. He showed identification and bought a knife and disposable razor blades. It was the first purchase in a whole series. UK law prohibits the sale of such goods to anyone under 18. Roberts knew that and deliberately waited. The cashier noticed and kept a copy of the receipt.
Then came hammers, axes, more knives. A balaclava, helmet, coveralls, and cling film. He bought everything methodically. He ordered the hammer he ultimately used for the murder on Amazon for £20.
Angela began to worry. She wrote in her phone: "Why? What does he need it for? Is he planning to hurt me, himself, who? Why?" She contacted a social worker and friends. No one intervened in time.
DeepSeek advised him how to do it
During his preparations, Roberts turned to the Chinese AI tool DeepSeek. He asked it directly: "Which weapon is better for murder, a hammer or a knife?" The chatbot initially refused to answer. But Roberts tricked it. He said he was writing a book about serial killers. And DeepSeek responded. It recommended a hammer as the better choice for an "inexperienced killer" and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of both weapons. Roberts also asked the chatbot for the easiest way to remove blood from walls, floors, and a bed.
This detail is unlikely to leave anyone unmoved. Artificial intelligence, susceptible to a simple pretext and capable of giving advice on murder.
Roberts spent hours every day on the gaming communication platform Discord, where he shared misogynistic rants and murderous fantasies under various aliases. In total, he left behind 16 different accounts after repeatedly being banned for violating the terms of service. He always came back.
He wrote things like: "I hate girls... I don't trust women either." Or: "She will simply disappear off the face of the earth. The time has come." A few weeks before the murder, he shared a clip from the film American Psycho with the caption: "I have cravings." On the night of the murder, he changed his profile status to: "Tonight is the night."
The fatal night
On the evening of October 23, 2025, Roberts attacked. Angela, who was using crutches because of an injured knee, had no chance of escaping. He held her captive in her own bedroom for nearly four hours. He beat her with a hammer and strangled her. Despite this, she pleaded with him in a calm, firm voice to call an ambulance. She even offered to "cover" for him and say that he did not know what he was doing.
Roberts promised to take her to get help. He said someone was waiting at a pub. At 3:19 a.m., a neighboring doorbell camera captured them leaving the house together. Angela is limping, and Roberts is carrying a backpack. The hammer is inside the backpack. At Morfa Nature Reserve, he ordered her to sit on a bench. According to audio recordings from a voice recorder, she began screaming when he pulled out the weapon. She died after repeated blows to the head. He then wrote on Discord: "I just had the craziest day."
"Is it your mother?"
On the morning of October 24, dog walkers found Angela's body. A trail of blood stretched for more than 100 meters. Beside the body lay a crutch, a blood-soaked balaclava, and a glove.
Meanwhile, Roberts was replying to messages from his mother's phone. His brother Ethan, who was at university at the time, wrote: "Just call me for one second so I know you're alive." Roberts, pretending to be his mother, replied: "I think I'm alive" and added a laughing emoji.
When he was arrested that afternoon, he was calm. He asked: "Is the body you found my mother?" During a four-day interrogation spread over nine sessions, he gave the same answer to every question: "No comment."
The court's verdict
When passing sentence, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: "You seemed to revel in the control you exercised over your own mother. It was an utterly horrific way for a person to die. Made all the more horrific because her attacker was her own son, someone she clearly loved."
Ethan Roberts wrote in his statement: "My mum did everything for Tristan his entire life. I have no idea how he could do this to anyone, let alone the one person who would have done absolutely anything for him."
Angela's sister, Sarah Gunther, described her as a mother "who never gave up, no matter what life brought". She added that her love for her sons was unbreakable.
Sources: theguardian.com, nypost.com and bbc.com
