Girls ‘ laughed for selfie as they beat woman to death’
TWO teenage schoolgirls smiled for a selfie with a helpless woman as they battered her to death, a court heard yesterday.
Aged 13 and 14 at the time, they also phoned the police to ask for a lift home after beating Angela Wrightson and defiling her body, it is alleged.
The diminutive 39-year- old is said to have begged for her life as the pair stopped the attack to pose for the selfie, which they then shared on video messaging app Snapchat.
After being picked up, the pair took another selfie in the back of a police van and posted it online with the caption: ‘In the back on the bizzie van again.’ A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard the girls used a variety of weapons, including a wooden stick covered in screws and a shovel, to carry out the ‘sustained and brutal’ attack, which left the vulnerable alcoholic with more than 100 wounds.
Her blood- stained body was found on the sofa at her home in Hartlepool in December 2014 by her landlord. The attack may have started at 7.30pm and could have lasted until 2.56am the following morning.
The teenagers, who are both charged with murder and are now aged 14 and 15, cannot be named for legal reasons.
They appeared in the dock flanked by two intermediaries to help them understand the court process, and denied the charge.
The jury heard that the two girls had been in local authority care. As they grew into their teens, their ‘intense’ friendship had caused concern.
After leaving the woman’s home, the girls are accused of returning hours later to ‘see if she was dead’.
The following day the elder girl allegedly began asking her care worker how long the sentence was for murder.
When she was told it could be seven years for manslaughter she said the sentence might ‘sort her out’ as she could study behind bars and would have her own TV and PlayStation, it is claimed. Prosecutor Nicholas
‘Indignities heaped on her’
Campbell, QC, told the jury: ‘The evidence at the scene of the crime showed that she had been assaulted in 12 separate locations within that room.
‘A number of implements were used as weapons. They included a wooden stick with screws standing proud of the surface, a television set, a printer for a home computer, a coffee table, and a shovel.
‘Smaller items such as a kettle and a metal pan were also used, together with a glass ceramic vase and a glass ornament.
‘ Further indignities were heaped upon her when she was in no position to stop them.’
The elder girl accepts that she struck Miss Wrightson but said she did not intend her serious harm. The younger girl says she played no part in the assault and did not encourage her co-accused in any way.
The trial continues.