06/05/2021
THE ORIGINS OF STAPLETON
New information has recently been shared with our organisation by a former schoolmate of Stapleton’s, who we shall refer to as Timmy Brobhim to protect his (or her) identity.
Timmy tells us that Stapleton was a young man lacking an identity before he became a criminal and developed an insatiable appetite for the macabre.
In his own eyes Stapleton was a nobody growing up in the leafy suburbs of Devon. Although of low intelligence, the sole male heir to the Stapleton fortune was savvy enough to know that committing heinous random acts would create a permanent impression in his community.
His first felony was committed at 18 when he stole an RSPCA charity box from his local church. Barely five hours after committing the crime in the early hours of Easter Sunday 2011, he was feverishly typing in internet searches for "Tiverton church theft" on his top-of-the-range smartphone.
Early news reports gave the barest details, so Stapleton chose perversely to get closer to the action and revel in the anarchy that he had created.
He cycled down the Berwin Road so as to have a better view of St Paul’s Church (his crime scene) and no doubt slyly smirked at officers as chaos unfolded.
‘Friends’ were later invited to his family’s 12 bedroom mansion, where he boasted superciliously holding the charity box aloft, safe in the knowledge that word would spread about his anti-hero antics. He took photographs of himself (see below) – doing his very best to appear maniacal.
Buoyed by his dodging of the authorities he rounded up more friends and visited a local tattoo parlour where he had a teardrop tattoo inked behind his left testicle. Staff at Angel Ink Tattoos remembered him hyperactively posturing like a small-time gangster who clearly wanted to be somebody.
His hunger for notoriety stepped up a gear when he blew up a pond in a local petting zoo (using sodium he’d stolen for his local college), killing a goose and injuring several swans.
Making his first appearance before magistrate’s court following his arrest for the incident he was asked if his name was Patrick Stapleton.
"No," he replied quickly. "The name’s Boom Boom. Patty Boom Boom."
When on trial he appeared largely bored with the proceedings but noticeably perked up when he entered the limelight of the witness box.
Tellingly, whilst incarcerated, he told one doctor that he was always joking and that winding up people was what got him through the day.
Flippant remarks were his stock in trade and he could not help himself while giving evidence. This approach of Stapleton’s culminated in a cocksure rant when asked if he hoped his sentence would be reduced on grounds of diminished responsibility.
He replied: "To be honest I'm not bothered. I’d love prison, I’ll watch Corrie and get bare munch at the canteen. Lock me up for 65 years. Does this face look bothered?"
The main concern for image-conscious Stapleton seemed to be the fate of the grey Adidas cardigan he wore when he carried out, what Tiverton locals have come to refer to as, ’The 12 Bird Bloodbath’.
It was produced in court as an exhibit and the jury heard in a taped prison phone call with his father that he wanted a similar one bought for him.
“Sitting in the dock wearing an identical top would be the perfect wind-up” he was heard jeering.
It was agreed by both the prosecution and defence at the time that while he had a recognised medical condition of an anti-social personality disorder, and displayed psychopathic traits he did not strictly fit the criteria of a psychopath.
With the 20/20 lens of hindsight and considering Stapleton’s one-man crime wave and numerous animal rights violations over the ensuing decade, we can categorically say that they were erroneous in their appraisal.
Arm yourself with knowledge.
