Our loving family’s been torn apart
Parents tell of their agony as teenage girl who knifed Katie, 7, to death is locked up for life
A MENTALLY ill teenager who killed a seven-year-old girl she believed was a robot was jailed for life yesterday.
The 15-year-old suffocated Katie rough with a gloved hand on a playing field, cut her throat with a stanley knife and mutilated her body to see if she was ‘real’.
she then dialled 999 to confess what she had done, but has remained silent about what happened ever since, refusing to speak to police, the court and psychiatrists assessing her.
Her silence means the court-appointed psychiatrists have not been able to agree on the nature of her mental illness.
sentencing the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Mr Justice soole said: ‘All the experts are hampered by your silence.’
Katie’s mother Alison rough, 39, was one of the first people to discover her dying daughter in York on January 9, and cradled her body, sobbing: ‘no, no. it’s my little girl.’
Yesterday, after watching the sentencing, Mrs rough and her husband Paul, 35, said their ‘loving home and family had been torn apart’.
The judge said the killer, now 16, must spend at least five years in custody before being considered for release. But he discounted the 317 days when she was detained for the investigation and trial, meaning she could be free in four years.
The defendant, who had pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility in July, held a cuddly toy throughout yesterday’s sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court.
no one knew the danger she posed, even though she had been under the care of local mental health services for a year before the killing. An investigation is being carried out by NHS England to identify any failings in her care.
Mr Justice soole revealed that she no longer had a ‘ detainable mental illness’, but said that she still posed a ‘high risk’.
He said she should only be freed when and meaning will she remain she is considered will on have licence to to meet be for safe certain life, conditions and be supervised by a probation officer.
He described it as a ‘truly exceptional case’, adding: ‘The minimum term is not a fixed term after which you will automatically be released, but it is the minimum time that you will spend in custody before your case can be considered by the parole board.’
The teenager appears to have shut herself off from the world. it is not known whether she has even said a word to her legal team.
she has never spoken in court and even entered her plea at a previous hearing by writing her initials on a piece of paper.
Yesterday, she appeared on a video link from another room in the court building, and a member of her legal team confirmed her name on her behalf. The judge said her mental condition at the time of the killing ‘substantially impaired’ her ability to ‘form a rational judgment’. Detectives worked out details of
‘Experts hampered by your silence’
the killing using forensic evidence, but Mr Justice soole told the girl that the exact events were ‘only known to you, since you remain unwilling or unable to say anything beyond your plea of guilt’.
‘The utter tragedy and devastation of all this needs no emphasis,’ he added. Explaining why he was imposing a life term rather than a fixed sentence, he said it was impossible to assess how long she remained a danger to the public. Mr and Mrs rough showed little emotion as they watched the proceedings.
On the day of Katie’s death, Mrs rough was directed to the scene of the attack by a 999 operator and the couple arrived moments after a police officer.
she held her apparently lifeless daughter in her arms until paramedics arrived to take over attempts to resuscitate Katie. But nothing could be done.
Questions remain about the killer’s involvement with child and adolescent mental health professionals in York. A full psychiatric assessment had been requested but was never carried out, and weeks given psychosis anti- before was depressants the ‘flagged killing up’ and she for was further her investigations. she was known to Katie and had also wanted to kill Mrs rough.
Katie’s family said the sentencing was ‘not the end of our story’, adding: ‘Our story is about a loving home and family that was torn apart when we lost our daughter.
‘Our story goes on into a future where our home feels very empty, but we will keep going for sake of our other children and grandson.’
Detective Chief inspector Andrea Kell, of north Yorkshire Police, said: ‘This investigation has been one of the most tragic and challenging i have ever dealt with.
‘There are no positive results from cases such as these.’