Teen obsessed with Coronation Street killer guilty of copycat murder

Fictional Killer John Stape (right), played by Graeme Hawley.

A schoolboy obsessed with a Coronation Street killer has been found guilty of a gruesome copycat murder.

In a chilling echo of the ITV soap the boy tried to commit the perfect murder.

Armed with a claw hammer the teenager from Nottingham attacked his victim at her home before dousing her body with petrol and setting her alight in a bid to cover his tracks.

Forensic teams found the teenage girl so badly burned at the house in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, she could only be identified through dental records.

Pathologists discovered the girl had been repeatedly struck with the murder weapon after finding lacerations and fractures to her skull.

Both the killer and his victim cannot be named for legal reasons because of their age.

Nottingham Crown Court heard the mudering soap fan researched getting away with murder by visiting websites "people who get away with murder in shows" and "how to get away with murder".

The boy was obsessed with fictional Coronation Street killer John Stape, played by actor Graeme Hawley, who killed a woman on the soap with a hammer then left her body in tram wreckage.

Shaun Smith, prosecuting, said: "You will hear about a young man who immersed himself in a fantasy world; fantasy words he wrote, television drama, films he accessed by the internet and other internet sites."

Police also found violent scenes fromother soaps like Hollyoaks and Emmerdale and the gory torture shocker Saw.

The youth admitted killing his victim but denied murder, claiming he was provoked and lost control following a row.

But a jury for the two-week trial unanimously delivered a guilty verdict.

The defiat teen shouted "it isn't over" and he would appeal when he was told he could face a life sentence.

Psychiatric reports by several experts did not find him mentally ill but he will be sentenced in April after further evaluations.

An ITV spokesperson said: "ITV takes careful steps to ensure that pre-watershed drama is appropriate for a family audience and the Stape murder scenes in Coronmation Street were fully compliant."

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