Teenage killer sent for mental assessment

The killer of seven-year-old Katie Rough has been detained for assessment in a specialist hospital for 12 weeks by a judge who told her she poses “a high risk of serious harm to others”.

Katie was found with severe lacerations to her neck and chest on a playing field in York in January, and died from being smothered by her attacker – a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Soole told the teenage defendant she would be detained in hospital for 12 weeks before she was returned to court for further sentencing on November 24. The judge told her: “It is not in dispute that you currently pose a high risk of serious harm to others and to yourself.”

The girl denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility at a hearing in July.

The judge told the girl he was making the hospital order “in order to try and obtain the fullest picture of your mental condition and its prospects of treatment before making my final decision as to the appropriate sentence in your case”.