Head boy was the model pupil - but he slowly became a gruesome killer
A prodigal head boy whose academic future was extremely promising tragically went from being a star pupil to becoming a gruesome killer.
Benjamin Moglione, the son of Alison Moglione, a programme lead in children's services at Liverpool City Council, lived happily with his family unit made up of himself, his mum and his mum's partner Andrew McDiarmid; a former Merseyside Police detective. They led a comfortable life, jetting off on holiday and exploring the world together.
He had been head boy during his time at Heswall Primary School, achieved "top marks" while at Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby, and was then elected deputy head boy during his time at Birkenhead Sixth Form College. The "articulate, hard-working and very bright boy" had earned extra pocket money by working as a waiter at restaurants Nova and the Otto Lounge in his home village, as well as volunteering at a Roy Castle Foundation charity shop.
Andrew McDiarmid, a former Merseyside Police detective, was stabbed to death (Liverpool Echo)After college, he moved to Sheffield to study chemical engineering at university - but it was in South Yorkshire that his seemingly idyllic life would take a turn for the worst, experiencing a decline in his health which would ultimately lead to him becoming a killer. Living in halls in the first year of his course, Moglione unexplainedly "started waking up on the floor with injuries on his face" around exam season.
Then, on one occasion while he was home for the summer, the usually "early riser" remained in bed past lunchtime and then, once roused for something to eat, hunched forward and "virtually put his head in his dinner" as he sat at the table. It was following these episodes he was diagnosed with epilepsy. The condition severely hampered his studies, not least because his medication left him "forgetful" and "very sleepy".
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Moglione ultimately fell a few marks short of a 2:1, having suffered a seizure shortly before an exam which he subsequently failed. With ambitions of returning to university in order to complete a Master's degree, he was given the allowance of completing an additional piece of coursework in order to boost his grade.
In September 2021, he had also started switching his medication from Tegretol to lamotrigine - but in December of that year, his epilepsy began "going out of control", with his seizures worsening in severity and number. Moglione suffered his first seizure in the daytime nine days before Christmas, while stopped in his car at a set of traffic lights in Prenton. Staff from a nearby Morrisons Daily store spotted him collapsed at the wheel and had to smash through the window of his vehicle in order to give him medical aid.
Police outside the home in Walton (Liverpool Echo)But his seizures got worse over time until tragedy happened in January 2022. Ms Moglione then went into the bathroom in order to wash her hair in the shower at around 8.30pm. Having applied the shampoo, she suddenly "heard a really unusual sound, not like a scream, like a sound of air, a very loud exhalation of air".
Moments later, her son burst into the room. His hands were covered in blood, and he told her: "You can start again now, mum." Alison feared he had cut his own wrists, but upon checking his arms found this was not the case. A CCTV camera inside the Moglione home captured what had happened though, at least in part.
Moglione entered the room where Mr McDiarmid lay alone. The CCTV system captured audio of him asking: "Hello. Are you alright?" Andy then replied: "Yeah. Are you?" Moglione told him "no, not really" before "screams, groans and heavy breathing" were heard on the footage.
Wrapped in a towel, Alison went to investigate. In their bedroom, she found her partner lying gravely wounded and covered in blood beside a bloodstained knife.
Ms Moglione ran downstairs and dialled 999. Her son pleaded with her, "don't ring the police", but she told him: "I've got to." In the kitchen, Moglione took another knife from the same block and held it to his side before being calmed down by his mum. He was arrested that evening at the family home on Oldfield Way, and has been held in Clock View Hospital in Walton since.
The tragedy happened in the family home (Liverpool Echo)A post-mortem investigation subsequently found Mr McDiarmid had "sustained some 17 wounds to his body", 13 being stab wounds and "some incised wounds". A number of these injuries had been "inflicted with severe force". Ms Moglione later told detectives of her son's behaviour following the incident: "To me, at that point he was not there. When it was over, the episode, he was not there.
"He wasn't conversing. He hadn’t done it in a sane mind. It wasn’t my son who was doing that. He was very, very ill. He hasn't premeditated that. He was in a seizure state. I don't know if he's had a seizure, but that was not my son. That was not my normal son.
"This is a lovely young man who’s never harmed a fly. How would we see this coming? It's a tragedy. I've lost my son and I've lost my husband. This position is like a nightmare. I need to wake up, but it's real."
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Moglione was later charged with Mr McDiarmid's murder, and went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court this week. Gordon Cole KC delivered the prosecution's opening to a jury of eight men and four women on Monday, before Ms Moglione's evidence was heard on Tuesday.
Jurors were not brought into court on Wednesday as legal discussions took place. Then, on Thursday morning, Moglione admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, having apparently entered a psychotic state following a seizure.
On Friday, it was decided his plea would be accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, and the jury were instructed to record a not guilty verdict on the count of murder. The now 23-year-old defendant will be sentenced in May.
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