R v Daniel Boulton
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 02 February 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal |
| Court | Crown Court |
IN THE CROWN COURT AT LINCOLN
THE QUEEN V. DANIEL BOULTON
2 FEBRUARY 2022
SENTENCING REMARKS OF THE HON. MR JUSTICE PEPPERALL
1. Daniel Boulton, you are now 30 and have been convicted by this jury of the murders
of your former girlfriend, Bethany Vincent, and her 9-year-old son, Darren Henson.
You have also pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer with intent to resist arrest
and an offence of burglary.
2. At 8.11pm on 31 May 2021, young Darren, or DJ as he was known by his family, was
going to sleep at his home in Louth. DJ had returned that afternoon from seeing his
father, Kieran Henson. The boy and his young mother, Bethany, had just spoken by
FaceTime to his grandmother, Caroline Vincent. He was a happy little boy
surrounded by love, who was excited to be wearing his new Chelsea shirt and who
was laughing as he smothered his little brother with kisses and his love.
3. A mere 12 minutes later both Bethany and DJ were bleeding to death.
4. Your journey to commit these terrible murders started just before midnight the
night before when you left Skegness. You walked some 28 miles from Skegness up
the coast to Mablethorpe before walking west to Louth. A matter that I have had to
consider with some care is your motive in undertaking that walk and then in
loitering all afternoon in Louth after first seeing Bethany Vincent at lunchtime and
before committing these murders that evening. Having done so, I am satisfied so
that I am sure about four keys matters. First, I am sure that you forced your way
into Bethany Vincent’s house that evening with the intention of killing her and DJ.
Secondly, I am sure that you decided to commit these offences before Ms Vincent
and her young family could move beyond your reach into safe accommodation.
Thirdly, I am sure that you targeted DJ because of a hatred motivated by his autism
and your irrational fear that such condition would somehow affect your own son.
Fourthly, I am sure that you are a violent and very dangerous man and that you
pose an ongoing high risk of further violence and possibly even homicide.
5. Such findings are, in my judgment, supported by the following matters:
(a) You have previous convictions for assaulting five different police officers, for
robbery and for five further offences of violence. Of those offences, three were
offences of assaulting women with whom you were in a relationship. The first
was committed against a previous girlfriend while the offences in November
and December 2020 were committed against Bethany Vincent.
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