#liam hamilton

Hamilton shared an apartment with his younger brother. Both of them were unemployed and mostly kept to themselves, except Liam, who (according to neighbours) had a history of issuing noise complaints in the building. According to his family, he could also sometimes be very violent and self-destructive as a child.

He had long had an issue with “thumps” and “loud noises” coming from the apartment above his own, which enraged him so much that he started planning to murder the family who lived there. Two weeks before the murder, Hamilton bought a hammer, a mora knife and a hacksaw. His plan was to go up to the Bennet’s door, ring the doorbell and beat down whoever it was that opened the door. He would then take the body downstairs into his own apartment, cut up the body into six pieces, and then dump each part at different recycling stations to decrease the risk of being caught.

On that day, Hamilton rang the bell at the Bennet’s place, and Hannah opened the door. Hamilton struck the girl’s forehead with the hammer he had bought and went into the apartment with the stunned girl so he could deliver the finishing blows. He struck her face and head several more times, and also attempted to strangle her after she’d fallen down. When he couldn’t muster the strength to carry the girl downstairs, Hamilton panicked and went to get his brother to help him move the body. “His hair was wet, and he had on a red sweater with a stain on it, as if he’d tried to wash something off”, Hamilton’s brother later said. The brother thought Hamilton was joking first, but the truth dawned on him as soon as Hamilton took him upstairs and showed him the girl’s body. The brother confessed that he was so scared of Hamilton at that point, that he didn’t dare objecting to him, so he helped Hamilton carry Hannah’s body down and into their apartment. The brother called the police as soon as Hamilton rushed back up to try to clean up the blood he’d spilled, but eventually chose to try to take his own life by jumping from the apartment window. When police arrived at the scene, they found Hamilton unconscious in the bushes outside, and he was arrested. The fall had broken his back and left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Later, Hamilton confessed that he hadn’t intended to murder Hannah, but her mother. However, when Hannah was the one who opened the door, Hamilton felt he “had” to go through with his plan anyway; to “prove to himself that he was capable”.