Nottingham hammer death: Boy guilty of murder

A schoolboy who attacked a woman with a hammer before setting her body on fire has been found guilty of murder.

The teenager admitted killing the woman but denied murder during a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. He said he had been provoked during a row.

The court heard the woman's body was padded with paper, covered in petrol and set on fire at her Nottingham home in 2011.

Neither the schoolboy nor the woman can be identified for legal reasons.

The prosecution said the killing was well researched and a story mapping out the details was found to have been deleted from the boy's computer.

'Hurt people'

A montage of soap opera clips about fires and a murder involving a hammer were also found on his computer.

In response to defence questioning, the teenager told the court he was obsessed with how to get away with violent crimes and had written a story that mapped out what happened that night.

The jury heard authorities raised concerns about the boy's behaviour in the months before the attack.

He told a counsellor voices were telling him to hurt people and that he had had visions of killing people, the court was told.

However, several experts had concluded he was not mentally ill and he did not pose a risk.

Sentencing has been adjourned until April while psychiatric reports are carried out.