Girls who beat woman to death fight to remain anonymous

TWO teenage girls who beat a frail and vulnerable woman to death during an attack of “gratuitous degradation” are taking legal action to prevent their identities being made public.

The teenagers were aged 13 and 14 when they were jailed for life with a 15-year minimum in 2016 for the murder of 39-year-old Angela Wrightson, in her Hartlepool home.

Sentencing them, Mr Justice Globe condemned their actions as “cowardly” as he revealed that Miss Wrightson had suffered 70 separate slash injuries and more than 50 blows to the head as she had desperately tried to defend herself.

But he banned the media from naming the pair on the grounds that being identified could lead to their suicide.

Now legal teams for the killers have obtained an interim injunction extending their anonymity, although one of them has since turned 18. The issue will go before the High Court next month.

During the trial it emerged that the older of the two girls had attempted suicide on four occasions, once in a court lavatory where she tried to strangle herself with her own hair. The quick actions of a female member of the court staff saved the girl’s life.

The younger girl was also revealed to have self-harmed during the trial.

The murder is believed to have taken place over five hours as the girls posted images of themselves laughing on social media. Miss Wrightson was hit with a shovel, a television, a coffee table and a stick in what was described as an attack of “gratuitous degradation”.