A mother was beaten to death in a planned attack by her teenage son who hated women and was obsessed with violence and serial killers.

Tristan Roberts, from Prestatyn, Denbighshire, waited until he was 18 to buy the weapons he would use to murder his mother, including knives, hammers and axes.

He announced his intention to kill 45-year-old Angela Shellis on social media platform Discord.

Roberts, who pleaded guilty to murder at an earlier hearing was sentenced at Mold Crown Court to life with a minimum term of 22-and-a-half years. He recorded the prolonged attack on a Dictaphone and, after the murder, answered a message from his brother on his mother's mobile saying she was asleep in bed.

Warning: This article contains distressing details

Sarah Gunther, Angela Shellis's sister, told Roberts: "I hope in time you can come to understand the full consequences of your actions, and the pain and devastation they have caused to so many people."

Angela, described by her family as a "loved daughter, sister, mum and aunty", was using a crutch at the time of her death after injuring her knee.

On the morning of 25 October 2025 her body was found by dog walkers at about 08:30 at Morfa Nature Reserve near Prestatyn.

Police found a trail of blood stretching for more than 100m (330ft) on a gravel path which led them to her body, which was hidden in undergrowth.

A crutch was found nearby along with a blood-soaked balaclava and a pair of gloves.

Police were unable to identify her until a relative phoned to say they were worried about Angela's safety after reports a woman's body had been found. During the call it was revealed that she was using a crutch.

At about 13:25, police arrested Roberts at home, and over the course of four days he was interviewed a total of nine times, answering "no comment" to each question.

On 28 October, Roberts was charged with murder but the police were only beginning to discover the extent of Roberts' violent desires, and the lengths he went to in planning his mother's death.

Police found evidence on Roberts' laptop that he spent hours every day online posting misogynistic and violent messages, mainly on social media platform Discord.

He also developed a morbid fascination with fictional serial killers Dexter and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Despite being thrown off Discord several times for violating the site's code of conduct, he returned with different aliases, 16 in total. Messages such as: "I do hate girls... I also don't trust them" were among many he posted. On the night of the murder he changed his profile status to: "Tonight's the night."

While searching Angela's home, police found her mobile phone and a dictaphone hidden in a wardrobe. The device, bought weeks earlier along with his weapons, contained messages recorded by Roberts.

The first message said: "This is Tristan Roberts. Tonight I'm going to murder my mother with a sledgehammer."

Police also retrieved a recording lasting several hours, detailing the initial violent attack on Angela in her bedroom. She was kept prisoner inside the room for nearly four hours, with her son threatening her with a hammer and ignoring her repeated pleas for help.

Eventually, at about 03:00, Angela was persuaded to leave her house, on the pretence that she would receive medical help by someone at a local pub, and only after she was forced to wear a balaclava.

Ring doorbell footage from Angela's neighbour shows Roberts leading his mother from their house at 03:19.

By 03:30 the pair can be seen on CCTV footage walking along Sandy Lane railway crossing, with Angela in obvious difficulty over the uneven path. Roberts is carrying a rucksack with the murder weapon inside.

Once they arrive at the nature reserve, Roberts told his mother to sit on a bench. Police believe Angela would have seen Roberts taking out a hammer from his bag because on the audio recording she began screaming. She died after repeated blows to her head.

Roberts is heard saying in the recording: "Oh God, that was terrifying, that felt so crazy... I just killed her... job's done."

The 18-year-old then dragged his mother's body along the gravel path before dumping her in brambles and throwing away her crutch. He is seen by the same cameras on the railway crossing returning home, alone, at 05:35.

Then, at 06:26, Roberts is seen walking back towards the nature reserve, swinging a white plastic bag which police believe contained ammonia and other chemicals to clean blood from the park. But early morning dog walkers forced Roberts to return home.

Later that morning Roberts logged on to Discord and boasted about what he had done. He made repeated, graphic references to the violence he had used and the injuries he had caused.

At about 11:00 Roberts' older brother, Ethan Roberts, tried to contact his mother. Roberts replied from his mother's mobile saying that everything was OK, apart from having a cold. The older brother messaged back: "Just call me for a second... so that I know you are alive."

Roberts answered: "I think I am alive," and added a laughing emoji.

Angela, a qualified teacher, worked as a teaching assistant at Rhyl High School so that she had more time to spend with her family.

She had moved back to north Wales from the Luton area after she split up from her husband, the father of her two sons. Her older son was away at university at the time of her death.

Angela had also wanted to be closer to her sister, Sarah Gunther.

Gunther told her nephew: "Tristan, I wanted to look into your eyes today and say this to you. The impact of your actions in taking Angela from us all, is something we now have to live with every single day.

"As a close family, we all fought so hard to try and get you the help you needed, none of us ever gave up on you - Angela especially. We all showed you love and cared for you, and tried to include you in everything we did.

"It is incredibly hard to express our feelings towards you now. There is anger, confusion, and heartbreak, but for me personally, there is still care there too for you.

"I just wish that if you felt you didn't want to live under the same roof as Angela you had considered that it could have been resolved in so many other ways, without going to the extreme of taking her away from everyone who loved her."

A statement by Angela Shellis' older son, Ethan, was read out in court on his behalf. It said: "On that Friday morning when I tried to talk to mum, I knew then that something was wrong.

"At the time I could not comprehend the reality of what had actually happened, I knew something had happened but could never have imagined Tristan could have done this. I knew from the messages that it wasn't my mum. I was begging for her to call me and I knew, had it truly been her, that she would answer me in an instant."

He added that the stress had forced him to temporarily withdraw from university.

He said: "Not a day goes by where I don't question why. Why would he do that to her? All my mum ever did was love Tristan, she looked after him and put up with way more than anyone ever should have, but that was my mum - she would do anything for us, anything for him, she's the only person that's ever done anything and everything for Tristan his whole life and he's the one who's took her from us all."

Sentencing Roberts, His Honour Judge Rhys Rowlands said medical experts were "of the opinion that you were not suffering from any significant mental disorder such as would have had a substantial impact upon your behaviour at the time you killed your mother".

"Rather you would have known what you were doing and been able to exercise self control. As such, whilst I don't discount or ignore your mental health, it is a feature and does mitigate your behaviour," he said.

Mold Crown Court heard that Roberts had a diagnosis of autism and ADHD, and a history of disruptive behaviour.  It deteriorated after he moved with his mother and older brother to Prestatyn in 2021.

The prosecution said that Angela had repeatedly tried to get help for her son, but with little success. For a while Roberts was an inpatient at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. After he was discharged he was homeless before he returned to live with his mother.

In September 2024, Roberts was arrested for possession of a knife in a public place and was also charged with theft from a shop. In February 2025, he was placed on a six-month referral order.

The court was told how Angela became increasingly fearful for her safety, sharing her concerns with professionals, friends and her diary. In it she wrote of finding a "black balaclava, black leggings, leather type gloves, huge army backpack - sleeps with it... concealed hammer in his room".

In the weeks leading up to the murder, Roberts wrote about his "hatred of women" as a motive, and in another message he wrote about feeling "abandoned, betrayed and bullied", and blaming his mother.

He said that he was killing her for "revenge, justice, vengeance" and so that he could move forward in his life.

Denbighshire Council would not be drawn on the help offered to Angela Shellis to deal with her son's behaviour.

In a statement it said: "Denbighshire County Council, together with partner organisations, has referred this case to the North Wales Safeguarding Board, therefore we are unable to comment further."

Discord is an online chat service which allows people to create and join groups based on their interests. It says it has more than 200 million monthly users.

It was launched in 2015 and is widely used by people playing games but also to arrange group activities because users can split conversations into easily searchable "channels".

Users can join groups - or servers - with no limit on members.

Tired of health misinformation on social media, Barbora Gray is fighting back by sharing facts.

They say they cannot understand the reason for the bans and have struggled to have them overturned.

The government will interview the young people and their parents before and after they try the limits to assess their impact.

Tatty Lomas, from Biddulph, started posting short 'story time' videos during the Covid lockdown.

Multiple shops and restaurants on Ealing Road have been targeted in recent weeks, police confirm.