An Unspeakable Crime: The Murder Of Jacqueline Bartlam

[Music] april 25th 2011. [Music] a call is made to 999 reporting that a house is on fire in georgia drive in nottingham england two young boys have fled the house with the family dog as the fire rips through the building emergency services quickly arrive on scene and try to put out the blaze as the fire ravages the house and the quiet suburban streets word begins to spread that a woman has been found dead inside one neighbor remarks you see things like that on the tv but when you know the person you just can't believe it [Music] at about 7 30 that morning fire investigation dog handler david cross was paged with the control room saying he needed to attend the nearest police station at around nine o'clock for a briefing before the fire investigation team went down to the scene with them arriving at the house at around 11am the police are cordoned off a large area around the estates but there was substantial interest from the press journalist rebecca shirdley said that the first the media had heard of the incident was that there had been a fire on georgia drive many neighbours had come outside and reporters learned from speaking to them that the two young boys had managed to escape but the lady inside had died from the outside there was severe smoke damage to the windows the source of the fire was quickly found it appeared to be around a body that was lying on the bedroom floor the task of investigators was to try and work out exactly what had happened the older of the two children who lived at the house who was just 14 years old told the detectives a horrifying and disturbing story he explained that he had woken up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom after exiting his bedroom he had come face to face with a man in a mask who proceeded to throw a hammer at him before fleeing he then said that he went into his mother's bedroom that was on fire where he found that she had been attacked in a state of panic he grabbed his little brother before running out of the burning building as the flames spread through the family home the children went next door to raise the alarm he then ran back inside to rescue the pet dog but he was unable to get to his mother and she was still inside as the house continued to burn the badly burned body was recovered and then taken away for a post-mortem due to the fire the body had to be identified using dental records the victim was discovered to be 47 year old mother of two jacqueline bartleum known to most as jackie after she had been identified the next task was to determine how she had died it quickly became clear to the police that the fire was not an accident it had been started deliberately to cover up the fact that she had died of blunt force trauma caused by multiple blows to the head jackie's partner simon matas had heard on the news that there had been a fire at a house on georgia drive upon hearing about the fire he sent a text message to jackie's sister who confirmed that jackie was missing and that the remains of her body had been found in the fire he raced back not knowing the details about what had happened as the news began to spread about what had happened that night people began to hear more about the victim of this disturbing attack jackie bartland was a doting mother of two young boys in 1996 she had given birth to her first son with her partner adrian and the pair got married three years after they would later have a second son together they had a stable and comfortable life they lived in a nice detached house in a middle class area and the children attended the local private school but the happiness was not to last however as jackie and adrian's marriage would eventually end in divorce following the split she had moved with her sons to another part of nottingham in may 2008 jackie met simon matas on a night out he didn't go out with the intention of meeting somebody but he was soon smitten with her her loving and caring nature stood out to simon and he noted how she showed a genuine interest in people the pair later became an item by all accounts jackie was a loving woman who didn't have enemies nobody could understand why anyone would want to kill her in such a brutal way just two days after the terrifying house fire the police announced that they had made an arrest the full picture of what had happened wouldn't come to light until a name suppression order was lifted allowing the press to name the alleged killer and give details on what had happened this had been a meticulously planned and orchestrated murder it wasn't a stranger who had broken in and savagely killed a woman at random the killer was a child jackie's 14 year old son daniel bartleum daniel was born on the 11th of november 1996 with his little brother being born several years later when he was just eight years old daniel became obsessed with fictional gore and violence as he began to retreat further and further into his dark world he became more reclusive and isolated he would spend the majority of his time in his bedroom feeding into his obsessions he would watch his collection of horror films with movies like saw and nightmare on elm street being frequently re-watched as well as playing video games just 12 months after becoming obsessed with gore and violence his life would be turned upside down his parents marriage fell apart and the couple would later divorce daniel and his brother would go to live with jackie jackie went out of her way to try and minimize the disruption and continue to pay for his private schooling for around six months until it was no longer affordable the divorce as with many separating couples had huge financial implications for the family due to the financial strain she had to remove daniel from his private school and instead send him to the local comprehensive forensic psychologist professor kevin brown said that as he had been removed from his private school and sent to a state school he could have experienced bullying and feelings of ostracization from his classmates as well as feeling a loss of status it was also around this time of him changing schools that simon and jackie began to discuss moving in together with them both selling their houses and buying one as a couple but although they found several houses that they liked they weren't able to find one that daniel approved of it was then too that daniel's behaviour began to change even more becoming defiant and playing up daniel didn't chip in around the house and didn't do chores with simon describing him as selfish alone and frustrated with things happening that were outside of his control daniel began to isolate himself more and shut himself off from the world daniel also started to become more and more angry with the lack of attention he was receiving his mother now had a new partner and things were happening in his life that he couldn't control all of which was feeding into his rage he spent most of his time up in his bedroom and nobody knew what he was doing up there from around the age of 12 he was mending laptops for people and that's what they assumed he was doing alone upstairs he also made several youtube videos hi this is daniel one person who became concerned with daniel's increasingly odd behavior was simon he was concerned that daniel was too young to be consuming such explicit and adult material at his age whenever jackie attempted to discipline her son he would often become violent in an attempt to regain control on more than one occasion simon had to intervene to protect jackie from her young son simon described one occasion where daniel had started shouting at jackie he got so close to her face that simon had to put himself between the two daniel proceeded to run upstairs and for the next two minutes he would kick the banisters hit the wall and swear and shout before going into his room and slamming the door shut jackie was so shaken and scared by her son's outburst in 2010 he was reported missing from home by his mother frantic with worry she contacted the police sparking a huge search to try and find him he was eventually found at 1am by officers as he was walking back to the old home his family had shared before the divorce the police took him back to his mother's house where she was again back at square one jackie continued to bear the brunt of his increasingly worrying behavior she found a smaller and more affordable house in the arnold region of nottingham in preparation for the move simon helped daniel pack up his old bedroom he found plastic toy boxes that were full of urine and feces that had clearly been there for some time he also found dirty towels that daniel had used to clean himself that he had then hidden under the bed simon was horrified and became even more concerned for daniel he soon made another disturbing discovery hidden in a laptop bag were a load of jackie's underwear that she had been looking for forensic psychologist professor kevin brown has argued that this was not due to a sexual motive but rather an attempt to gain attention daniel strange behavior was also noted at school following an outburst of violence in may 2010 he was referred to the school counsellor after this concerns would continue to mount in his counselling sessions he would speak about hearing voices and how the voices were telling him to hurt people he discussed visions he was having of killing people and also spoke about how his school tie that he had called fred had a life of its own and was trying to strangle him he would also spend hours writing stories with simon saying some of them focused on children killing each other he would draw pictures of people stabbing each other with this taking place around a year and a half before the murder of jackie he had gone from consuming violent media to creating and producing it himself as he moved into his early teens he continued to feed into his fixation with violence in film it was also around this time that he began to watch soap operas emmerdale and coronation street became ones he especially enjoyed with one character in particular becoming an obsession for daniel the character of john stape was a regular on coronation street who started in 2007. he quickly became the villain of the show involved in several major storylines including kidnap and murder before being killed off in 2011. one of these storylines involved him battering another character called charlotte hoyle with a hammer before leaving her body in the wreckage of a tram crash to cover up his crime [Music] other stories that daniel wrote involved him being the most famous soap opera star that had ever lived and had been on a soap for 50 years highlighting his desire for either fame or infamy bartlett immersed himself in his fantasy world to such an extent that the boundaries between real life and fiction would become disturbingly and tragically blurred by march 2011 just six weeks before the murder of jackie bartleum a mental health assessment was carried out at thorny wood child and adolescent mental health services following the assessment it said that daniel demonstrated no mental illness and he was judged as being little or no risk or threat to himself or others by april 2011 the relationship between jackie and daniel had continued to break down and had now reached an all-time low he was still obsessed with violent media and much of his anger was fixated on and directed towards his mother april 25th 2011 everything appeared normal in the batlam household simon had been texting jackie on the easter sunday and everything appeared to be fine with her saying that daniel had plans to go out with his grandparents he took the pet dog meg to get her coat trimmed mowed his mother's lawn and ate some easter eggs daniel spent the previous evening re-watching one of the saw films in the early hours of the 25th he would set his disturbing plan in motion [Music] it has been reported that he left the house and headed into the garden where he had hidden a can of petrol and a claw hammer in the shed after walking back through the garden and into the house he headed upstairs after entering his mother's bedroom he watched her as she slept for a while he then proceeded to raise the hammer above his head bringing it down with disturbing force he struck his sleeping mother seven times fracturing both her skull and her face after rolling her onto the floor he used scraps of newspaper to surround her body he then proceeded to douse her in petrol and then started a fire he ran to his younger brother waking him up to tell him that the house was ablaze before running out of the burning building as he waited on the street for the police to arrive he began to tell the neighbours that a masked intruder had broken into their house and left through his mother's bedroom window even before the police got there daniel started lying to those around him it wasn't long before officers started to question daniel's version of events when simon initially saw the news reports it just said that there had been a house fire in nottingham an hour later it was confirmed that the fire had taken place on georgia drive where jackie had lived although it was yet to be confirmed exactly which house had been caught in the blaze he said he knew it would be jackie's and he knew who would be responsible despite the best efforts of daniel bartlam to cover up his crime forensics were able to find many pieces of evidence that pointed the fingers solely in his direction when the forensics team went into the home to search it two hammers were found one was a claw hammer which following an examination was proven to be the murder weapon the other hammer was a lump hammer that had been planted by daniel to act as a red herring and throw the investigators off the scent according to former detective chief inspector colin sutton who worked with the metropolitan police force the degree of planning that he had exhibited from planning the murder to setting the fire using a decoy weapon and adamantly sticking to his story demonstrated a determination not usually seen in a 14 year old boy who had committed such a serious offence when examining his laptop officers found even more disturbing evidence whilst he had deleted it from his computer days before the murder officers were able to recover a story that daniel had written it was a fictional version of himself where he was the central character in the story daniel was a master criminal who got away with a string of gruesome murders rapes and assaults also in the story he bludgeoned his mother to death with a hammer before setting fire to the body in order to make it look like an intruder had done it but as the events of the 25th of april unfolded in the early morning hours it proved to be more than a fantasy this was his plan like the version of himself in his story daniel pretended to police that the attack had been carried out by an intruder he wrote the only place he couldn't get away with his bad deeds was with his mother jackie so one evening made it look as though there was a break-in and murdered his mother with a hammer then set her and the family home alight after his denial and vehemently sticking to his story daniel admitted to killing his mother and proceeded to tell the police an entirely different version of events on the day of the murder he said he had argued with his mother and she had then gone off to bed he said that at around 1am he had stormed into her bedroom and they had a blazing row about a pair of trainers that he couldn't find he said he then returned with a hammer and beat her to death but the idea that this had been a spur of the moment attack didn't match with what officers had found his script showed this was not a murder that had come from a fit of rage this was a planned and thought-out murder that had been meticulously plotted when trying to ascertain exactly why daniel had committed the offence neuroscientist professor francesca happe spoke in a documentary about daniel's case and noted that people with psychopathic tendencies don't have a break in their behavior that other people would for example seeing someone in distress would cause people to stop and whilst this isn't a motivation to do harm people with psychopathy don't stop from doing harm she said that daniel's case is completely mysterious and seemingly without any motive she also noted that children in their brains are still developing throughout childhood and adolescence so determining if a child has psychopathy is incredibly difficult but it is clear that adults who have many psychopathic traits typically show them when they are much younger forensic psychologist professor kevin brown said that what made daniel so different is in a crime as violent as his one would expect to see a history of abuse and neglect but this appeared to be absent in his case the only thing that appeared to traumatize him was the divorce of his parents on the 4th of october 2011 daniel bartlett entered a plea of not guilty he claimed he had been provoked before his trial started daniel bartland was examined by mental health experts for the prosecution and defense and they agreed that he did not have any psychiatric or psychological condition [Music] 23rd of january 2012 [Music] daniel bartlam's trial began and it was now the job of the crown prosecution service to prove that he had deliberately killed his mother the case was unprecedented and caused significant media interest very few had ever followed a case of such brutality committed by someone so young against a family member it was also unique due to the levels of planning that daniel had shown leading up to the murder journalist rebecca shirley who was reporting on and covering the trial said that when she saw daniel in the dock she was surprised at how young he'd looked she said he didn't look 14 years old he looked maybe 11 or 12. she also described him as sitting meekly in the dark but when he was cross-examined after giving evidence he became arrogant and gave as good as he got he would put his head in his hands frequently but not seemingly due to remorse or shame as he was peeking through his hands to see who was watching him simon mata's jackie's partner believed this was all for show there were no tears there was no remorse it appeared that daniel was completely disinterested and couldn't be bothered to pay attention daniel's barrister had asked if he had planned on killing his mother dania replied i didn't plan to kill her at that time in court the jury heard that daniel had immersed himself in a fantasy world and the boundaries between his fictional and real life had become tragically blurred he told the courts in the story i got away with it and i thought i could get away with it in real life the evidence was overwhelming so the defense daniel used was that he had committed the murder after suffering verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his mother this gave him a defense in law of loss of control which if proven would reduce an allegation of murder to manslaughter but this contradicted what many people knew of his mother jackie was known to be a kind-hearted and good-natured woman and nobody had ever seen her mistreat her children or be abusive his arrogance seemingly knew no bounds towards the end of the trial he turned towards simon and ran his finger across his neck in a motion that indicated slitting someone's throat simon said he didn't find it intimidating he said it was just daniel being daniel after a two-week trial daniel bartland was unanimously found guilty of murder when the jury came back with the verdict daniel hung his head and looked down towards the floor appearing as if he was about to cry some have speculated that this wasn't due to remorse but more likely a realization that his life was effectively over the judge mr justice julian flow said whilst there clearly were arguments between you and your mother not untypical between mothers and their teenage children i am quite satisfied that there was no physical or verbal abuse by your mother such as you alleged in your evidence at trial the judge also added that it was a grotesque and senseless killing on the 2nd of april 2012 daniel bartland was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 16 years he is eligible for release in 2028 but this will not happen if it is deemed that he is still a danger to others the circumstances of this crime are both shocking and difficult to comprehend we now know that daniel bartland planned to kill his mum he then executed the killing in a violent attack on her and then he took a number of steps to try and cover this up by both burning her body and then lying consistently throughout the police investigation it was only after we spoke to other witnesses that we realized his account was not consistent he was then arrested following his arrest we reviewed his computer and found that it deleted a story where a character called daniel bartland killed his mother in exactly the same circumstances as i've said this is a shocking investigation and has shocked me personally but the biggest impact is bound to be on daniel's family at daniel and jacqueline's family having spent time with them throughout the investigation and the subsequent proceedings i can suspect it's fair to say that they probably never come to terms with what's happened to them there's no evidence to to suggest jackie was anything other than her loving mum and love and supported daniel throughout his life [Music] upon being unanimously convicted and sentenced mr justice julian flo who had presided over the trial decided to have the reporting restrictions lifted the decision in this case to lift the anonymity on daniel's identity and release his name and details of his crime to the public despite his young age allowed for the press to report on exactly what had happened detective chief inspector kate maynald who had led the investigation said she had never dealt with such a horrific case the level of violence degree of planning and extent of his lies is not only shocking but it is also chilling that a boy of 14 could do this this murder has devastated everyone involved there is only one person who knows why it happened and daniel has lied consistently throughout making attempts to besmirch jacqueline's character everyone who knew her knew she lived for her children and was a warm and loving mother maybe one day daniel will tell the truth as there are several gaps that only he can fill in a statement released on behalf of the family jackie butland's parents said that daniel's attempts to depict her as a bad mother couldn't be further from the truth she was they said a wonderful loving and caring woman who would always be there to help if anyone was in trouble the statement said that the family was still struggling to come to terms with what daniel had done we find it so hard to explain what we're going through there are no winners here because not only have we lost jackie but we have lost daniel too because of what he's done we know it was the right result at courts but trying to understand how a boy you have loved for 14 years can do something like this is so difficult the most difficult part for us and something that only daniel can answer is why simon has said that although he doesn't hate daniel he doesn't love him either saying he has no feelings towards him at all i believe in forgiveness but there's some things you can forgive and some things you can't it was reported recently that simon had received a letter from the ministry of justice telling him that daniel bartland was to have his sentence reviewed as he had moved to an adult prison the letter read this review will look at whether his tariff can be reduced as the belief is that a youngster has the ability to change more rapidly than adult offenders you have the right to submit a victim personal statement for the high court to consider simon said he was horrified by the decision i'm absolutely and utterly against this i don't believe that he can be rehabilitated with what he did in the horrific nature of it and the way he was so manipulative my only fear is that he will have manipulated the parole board and pretended he's better that's my only fear i don't fear him the facts of exactly what happened that night may never be fully known as there is only one person alive who knows the truth and that is daniel bartlam what we do know is that those who knew and loved jackie are determined that she will be remembered as a loving mother and partner who cared deeply for people and not by the tragic and appalling way that her life was taken [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Id: 08N4b0OcNzg

Length: 25min 41sec (1541 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021