How dispute over £30 ended in 'gruesome' murder

Ben Atkins admitted taking "copious amounts of various drugs" before cutting up the body

It was an argument between drug addicts over just £30 that escalated into one of Britain's most "gruesome" murders.

Ben Atkins has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years for murdering his lodger Simon Shotton and disposing of his body parts around Boscombe in Bournemouth in August 2023.

Mr Shotton had been staying in the flat Atkins shared with his girlfriend Debbie Pereira, who has also been jailed for four years for perverting the course of justice and preventing the burial of a corpse.

Dorset Police said it was "shocking to think such a small amount of money can result in the loss of a person's life".

Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing

"It was the most difficult starting point for a murder that I've experienced," said Det Ch Insp Neil Third, as he explained how the investigation began with the discovery of two legs dumped in separate bags on 26 August.

Police did not know who the victim was and could only determine their height and shoe size.

Five days later, a DNA profile revealed the limbs belonged to 49-year-old Mr Shotton, and records showed the last call made on his mobile phone was to a Cash Creators shop in Boscombe.

CCTV footage identified Atkins and Pereira as the people who traded the phone in for cash a week before Mr Shotton's limbs were found.

Instead of rent money, murder victim Simon Shotton gave Atkins and Pereira drugs to stay in their flat

Text messages revealed he thought Atkins had stolen £30 in cash from him.

This sparked a fight between the men, ending with Atkins stabbing Mr Shotton with the end of a hairbrush and hitting him repeatedly over the head with a speaker.

Atkins said during his trial he had taken "copious amounts" of drugs before dismembering the body in the garden.

He said: "If I wasn't under the influence, I wouldn't have cut him up. I was scared. I was traumatised. I was panicked."

Det Ch Insp Neil Third headed up the murder investigation that required "huge" resources from across the Dorset force

Det Ch Insp Third said: “People that were involved in this case were all drug users.

"Simon Shotton had his own issues with addiction through his life and found himself dealing drugs to supply his own habit.

"It’s a vicious cycle that people find themselves getting into where they commit criminal acts in order to do that.

"But that in no way is any kind of justification for murder or the gruesome acts that followed.”

The detective added the "callous nature" of the dismembering of Mr Shotton's corpse and the "burning of his head" had left his family in the "awful position" of being unable to bury all of his body parts together.

Mr Shotton was murdered inside Atkins and Pereira's flat in Aylesbury Road

Atkins and Pereira's neighbours, who did not want to be named, told the BBC the couple were "friendly" and they knew them as "Ben and Debs".

They remembered a “disgusting burning smell, like burning flesh" in August 2023 and Atkins had told them he had burned a dead fox in the garden.

It transpired he had been burning Mr Shotton's head, fragments of which were found in Walpole Lane in February.

When the neighbours saw police take Atkins away in handcuffs with bags over his hands, they could not believe it.

“It’s just so scary - it’s like out of a horror film," they said.

"It just shows you, you don’t know who your neighbours really are.”

Police searched the undergrowth where Mr Shotton's limbs were found