Torture murder girls ‘could not be stopped’
THE murder of a vulnerable woman who was tortured by two in-care teenage girls could not have been foreseen, a serious case review ruled yesterday.
Angela Wrightson, 39, suffered more than 100 injuries as she was subjected to a seven-hour attack by the pair, then aged 13 and 14.
But neither girl had shown previous signs of serious violence, the review concluded.
Revealing its findings, the Local Safeguarding Children Board said staff at the older girl’s care home were “not allowed” to lock doors to stop her from absconding.
Miss Wrightson, an alcoholic who weighed just six stone, suffered 70 slash injuries during the ordeal in December 2014.
She was hit with a TV set, a shovel and a nail-studded plank.
As she lay dying in her Hartlepool home the girls, with a history of drug and alcohol abuse, halfstripped and defiled her body.
The girls, dubbed the Snapchat killers because of sickening selfies they took in the attack, received life sentences and will serve a minimum of 15 years after a trial at Leeds Crown Court last year.
Both girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had received a “high level of intervention” from social services.
But reviews by Hartlepool Local Safeguarding Children Board and Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board concluded the murder could not have been prevented.
The report stated that the older girl had been “reported missing to the police on a number of occasions” and brought home.
It added: “The police were frustrated she would often leave the home again immediately.”
Local Safeguarding Children Board chairman Dave Pickard said: “As a parent, in your own home, you could probably within reason stop a child leaving.
Traumatised
“Guidance in children’s homes is different, so you try to alter the behaviour of the child to prevent them from doing so.”
He added: “Neither young person had a criminal history and no history of any significant assaults on any other individuals.
“Their behaviour was troublesome and anti-social before the night in question.
“But there was no suggestion whatsoever of any serious violence – it was a total shock to everyone.”
Mr Pickard said the girls’ parents did not take on board earlier criticism of their parenting.
He added: “The girls had experienced abuse and neglect and they were traumatised.”