"My Stepdad Was a 'Dexter' Serial Killer: A Violent Tattooing and Chilling Visits to the Murder Shack Still Haunt Me"

TERRIFIED and screaming in pain, 17-year-old Shane Allsopp was pinned to the floor and left dripping with blood as his drug-addled stepdad, James Desborough, forcibly tattooed him.

Today, 12 years on, evil Desborough is spending the rest of his life behind bars – having been exposed as a Dexter-loving serial killer who murdered three men and is feared to have killed more. Now Shane is speaking for the first time ever – and revealing what it was really like to be raised by the triple murderer.

Shane, 29, says his childhood was filled with violence, drugs and intimidation after his mum began dating , 40, when he was 10.

He recalls being mentally and physically abused by him – culminating in the attack when he brutally etched a crescent moon tattoo onto his arm, a haunting reminder he still carries to this day.

And he even remembers visiting in Paramoor Woods, near Sticker, Cornwall – where cops later found bloodied weapons and eerie handwritten notes.

Desborough – who was obsessed with – was last month handed two whole life terms in prison.

He murdered and dismembered two vulnerable men – Daniel Coleman and Claudio Aquilino – and also killed his prison cellmate, Steven Kempster, at HMP Exeter.

Cops are now also actively reviewing the deaths of two men and two women at a homeless shelter that housed Desborough.

On July 3, 2025, Shane received a text from his younger half-brother that read: “My dad is going to prison, he murdered someone.”

Shane said he thought what he was reading was “insane” but was not shocked that his stepfather had murdered three men.

When Shane was 17, he says he was sitting at the kitchen table when Desborough pressured him into taking a bong before forcibly tattooing a crescent moon onto his arm.

He reveals he has never been able to face a professional tattooist, adding: “I’m too scared to get it covered as I’m kind of traumatised from the pain and memory associated.”

On another occasion, Shane alleges Desborough threw him across the kitchen and hurled a chair at him after they disagreed about him getting a job.

Shane, a store manager, from Saint Newlyn East, Cornwall, said he was not surprised when he learned about the murders: “I knew he was a violent man and he had history – and I knew drugs would have been involved.

“He would grow weed in our loft, there would be cocaine in the fridge, and he would take various drugs in front of us.

“On one occasion, he was taking a bong at the kitchen table. I remember him saying that I was boring because I didn’t want to smoke weed.

“He really started pushing me, so I had some of the bong with him as I was pressured.

“Then he started tattooing his leg; he asked if I wanted one and I said yes.

“He started to do it; he rammed the tattoo gun into my arm, it was painful – I knew it shouldn’t have been hurting so much.

“I looked down at my arm and it was pouring with blood; he was carrying on and wouldn’t let me leave until he finished.”

Desborough was in a relationship with Shane’s mum for 12 years.

Shane said if Desborough didn’t get his own way, he would resort to violence.

“He knew how to antagonise and push buttons; he was a narcissistic man who knew how to get under someone and make them feel small,” Shane said.

Shane said Desborough was “erratic and violent” and he grew up fearing for his safety.

On one occasion, Shane alleges that Desborough forced him and his brother to have a fight after they had an argument.

Shane, told The Sun: “It was a volatile environment to grow up in and around, but at the same time I didn’t know anything else.

“If my brother and I had a disagreement with each other, he would instantly want us to fight it out.

“He wasn’t one of those parents who would want us to talk it out.

“James was a homophobic bully; he was just another man pretending to be a role model.

“He made me petrified of men; I couldn’t trust men or feel safe around them and that continued to adulthood.”

Shane left the family home in 2017, aged 21, when he went to university to study fashion media and marketing.

From that moment, he ceased contact with Desborough.

“I knew my upbringing was wrong, but I didn’t know how wrong it was until I went to university and explained it to other people.” Shane added.

After killing and dismembering Claudio, 57, and Daniel, 43, Desborough burned and buried their remains in woodland at Sticker in Cornwall – near the off-grid shack in the woods.

Both men were homeless and had trusted Desborough as a friend.

Shane remembers visiting the cabin as a child and said it was rundown with no running water or insulation and said the living conditions were “terrible”.

He said: “He took us down there a few times, especially when we were little, to have a run around.

“James was a tree surgeon; he would take us down to the woods to chop down trees and turn the space into land.

“It was a nice cabin on the outside, but terrible living conditions; you wouldn’t want to live there. There was no running water, and no insulation.”

On July 29, 2026, Desborough was handed a whole-life prison term for murdering Daniel, 43, and Claudio, 57, and preventing the lawful burial of both men.

Triple killer Desborough had already been jailed for strangling his cellmate to death while he was being held on remand in prison.

The Judge described Desborough as “a highly dangerous individual” with “no regard” for the people whom he deemed as “worthless and not worthy of respect”.

Speaking of his step-father’s crimes, Shane said: “I found out at work, my brother had texted me to say his dad was going to prison and that he had murdered someone.

“I was like ‘oh my god’, and then he sent me the article.

“I wasn’t shocked by what I was reading; I knew that he had this history of aggression and I knew drugs would be involved.”