Brian Blackwell

Early life Brian Mark Blackwell was born in 1986 in West Lancashire to Jacqueline Blackwell, a former antiques dealer, and Sydney Blackwell, a retired accountant known as "Big Brain". Until July 2004, Blackwell lived at home with his parents in Melling, Merseyside, an affluent village in the northern suburbs of Liverpool, England. It is believed that his parents were overindulgent, as well as excessively overprotective and controlling of even minor aspects of Blackwell's life throughout his childhood. He had been an under-18 tennis champion at the local club. Nicknamed "Little Brian" by his parents and "Brains" by his friends, he was described as an "exemplary student" with a scholarship to Liverpool College

He regularly told innocuous lies, such as embellishing his academic achievements, but his lying escalated in the two months leading up to killing his parents in July 2004. With the savings bond that his parents had intended for university, he bought his girlfriend expensive gifts, and "hired" her as his manager, writing her a cheque for £39,000 that bounced.

Investigation and prosecution On 5 September 2004, six weeks after they were killed, police discovered the decomposing bodies of Blackwell's parents after a neighbour called to report a strong, unusual odour coming from the property. Blackwell was arrested the following day

During an interview, Blackwell claimed he knew nothing of his parents' deaths and was on holiday when they were killed. After two days of questioning, Blackwell's story began to change. He confessed to the killings and claimed that he had acted in self-defence. According to Blackwell, he was holding a claw hammer for hanging a picture on the wall when his father stood up to hit him. Investigators had previously learned that Blackwell's father had been struck on the back of the head while sitting down, which conflicted with Blackwell's claim of self-defence. Afterwards, according to Blackwell, his mother came in, and he attacked her.

The double-murder charge was dropped after he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after experts diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder.