Teenage Boy Who Murdered 7-year-old Is Sentenced

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A teenager who killed her 7-year-old neighbor in January this year in England was sentenced to life in prison last Friday, with the right to have her case reviewed after five years.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the 16-year-old girl was sentenced to spend her entire life in prison for the murder of Katie Rough, who lived in a field just a few feet from her home near a York city park..

In sentencing, a Leeds court judge indicated that the young woman - whose name cannot be revealed because she was a minor - would have the right to have a special board review her case after serving five years of her sentence.

During the trial, it was revealed that the teenager, who was 15 when she killed Rough, suffered from "an emerging schizotypal personality disorder." The defense showed that the psychiatric tests that were carried out described her as "incapable", "incompetent" and "without any disposition".

Although doctors said the teenager had curled up on a ball and cried when asked questions about the murder, the prosecutor stressed that one of them had said it represents "high risk and serious harm to the family and the general public."

Dr. Barry Chipchase, one of the three psychiatrists who evaluated her, stated that "there were no clear means to protect the public beyond continued detention."

According to authorities, the defendant suffocated and then stabbed the victim, who even inflicted a four-inch wound on her neck after she died.

The girl's “lifeless body” was found in a field near her home in the affluent Woodthorpe area of York, about 200 miles north of London.