Jailed for life, boy who killed stepmum with samurai sword
A SCHOOLBOY murdered his charity worker stepmother after becoming obsessed with online videos of beheadings and mass killings.
Rueben Brathwaite was 16 when he used the blunt side of an axe to repeatedly hit Fiona Scourfield, 54, before cutting her throat with a samurai sword.
The attack happened on March 6 outside the animal lover’s log cabin in West Wales after Brathwaite told her he had found an injured cat. He had helped feed their chickens and goats minutes before the killing.
Afterwards, he took two photos of Mrs Scourfield’s blood-soaked body to upload to the internet.
Her relatives wept as the babyfaced teenager, now 17, was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years at Swansea Crown Court yesterday.
His name and picture can be revealed for the first time after the judge lifted reporting restrictions.
The court heard Mrs Scourfield devoted her life to looking after her 32 animals at her log cabin, which stands in 16 acres of countryside near Laugharne, Carmarthenshire.
Brathwaite had lived with her since his father Charles moved in with her four years ago. The pair were said to have developed a close bond.
But the court heard Brathwaite had been warped by the extreme violence he had been viewing on the internet for a year before the murder.
He was obsessed with a website where users can freely access horrific footage of beheadings and mass killings. The court heard the content had fuelled Brathwaite’s obsession with ‘murder, death and mutilation’.
Brathwaite told a 999 operator his motive for the attack was that he was unhappy with his life and wanted to be arrested. He said he was too scared to commit suicide. The court heard he planned the murder the night before in bed.
After his arrest, Brathwaite told police: ‘I wanted to kill her without distress. I wanted her dead so that I could have a life. But I didn’t want to kill her in any psychotic way.’
Prosecutor John Hipkin said: ‘After feeding the animals he went outside and grabbed an axe from a workshop. He went back inside and took the samurai sword from under a bed.
‘He said: “I told Fiona the cat was outside and it was injured. When she stepped outside I hit her with the axe. I used the Samurai sword to slice her neck. After the blood stopped flowing I used my mobile phone to call the police.”’
Police found Brathwaite wandering along a country lane shortly after he rang 999 to report himself. He told officers: ‘I’ve got blood on my hands.’
Brathwaite admitted murdering his stepmother at an earlier hearing. In a letter to the court, he said she believed in him and had ‘so much love for me’.
There were sobs from the public gallery as a victim impact statement from Mrs Scourfield’s mother Charlotte was read. She said: ‘It is beyond comprehension that he could murder the person who looked after him for the last four years.’
‘I’ve got blood on my hands’