Girl of 16 gets seven years for stabbing school worker
A SCHOOLGIRL who nearly killed a teaching assistant in a stabbing frenzy has been locked up for seven years.
Elisha Burkill, 16, burst into welfare officer Joy Simon’s office and repeatedly knifed her with ‘utterly unemotional zeal’. Her 61-year- old victim’s blood- curdling screams were heard by colleagues who ran to the room and managed to pull Burkill off and kick away the knife.
The Year 11 pupil, who suffered mental health problems, plotted the revenge attack on Mrs Simon the night before because ‘she had done nothing to help her with her problems’, a court heard. Notes found by police revealed she had wanted to ‘go out with a bang’ from school.
Sentencing ‘dangerous and unpredictable’ Burkill yesterday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: ‘This was a sustained and brutal attack executed with ferocious but utterly unemotional zeal and determination.’ He said Burkill, who can only now be named after a legal challenge by the media, would probably have killed Mrs Simon had she not been restrained.
Hull Crown Court heard Mrs Simon was alone in her office at Winterton Community Academy, Lincolnshire, at 8.45am on September 25 last year when the teenager flew at her across the desk.
She thought Burkill was going to hug her but then felt a thud to her chest and realised she had been stabbed. As she stood up to defend herself, Burkill continued to slash at her face. Mrs Simon lost nearly a third of her blood and needed a transfusion to save her life.
The grandmother said she now locks herself in every night fearing for her safety and has been left scarred for life.
Burkill, who pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and carrying a bladed weapon, told a psychiatrist she had wanted revenge on Mrs Simon for being ‘insensitive’.