The butchery that plumbed new depths of depravity
showing ‘no hint of remorse’ and of being ‘the driver’ behind the killings – though she did not personally carry out the stabbings.
The convictions mean the pair are the youngest killer couple in UK criminal history.
Judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave noted the crimes were ‘exceptionally grave… rare and possibly unique in recent times, given the relative youth of the defendants’.
The teenagers hatched their plan to murder Mrs Edwards in her home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, because the girl had ‘a grudge’.
The sweethearts met ‘night after night’ in a McDonald’s and at a riverbank spot to discuss what they were going to do.
During a police interview the girl admitted: ‘I was carrying on as normal at school…No one knew about the plan… I was looking forward to it.’
The teenagers gained access to the victims’ house on the night of April 13.
The boy had brought six kitchen knives and selected the largest, 8in blade.
He stabbed Mrs Edwards several times and smothered her with a pillow.
The girl later noted that ‘a gun would have been easier’.
Katie, asleep in the next room, was stabbed, smothered and wrapped in a sheet as the girl ‘didn’t like the smell of blood’.
The young couple then took a bath to wash off the blood from their bodies.
They told police that they had planned to kill themselves at 2pm the next day with 80 tablets and alcohol – but that it just ‘didn’t happen’.
The girl said of Mrs Edwards: ‘She deserved it. I’m glad she’s dead even though I’m in a sticky situation.
‘We felt laid back about what we had done and neither of us felt that bad about it.’
As the verdict was read out at Nottingham Crown Court, the bespectacled girl stared ahead, dabbing her face with a tissue.
The couple were described in court as a ‘time bomb’.
Dr Philip Joseph, a consultant criminal psychiatrist, said: ‘A group dynamic can lead you to a course of action you would never have contemplated on your own.
‘Bonnie and Clyde … them against the world. It’s that sort of thing that led on to this.’
He added: ‘It is clear if they hadn’t got together and had this intense, toxic relationship, this would never have happened. I can’t believe she would have killed without [the boy].’
The pair had previously run away together and were found after five days living in a tent.
The boy, whose mother died when he was five, had suffered a turbulent home life. Described as a ‘loner’, he was relentlessly bullied at school.
The girl was described as ‘popular’ but isolated herself with her boyfriend and lost friends.
She had also experienced a spell in care. She had expressed suicidal tendencies and was known to mental health support groups and social services.
Explaining how she felt to a psychiatrist, the girl said: ‘To put it this way, I’ve been a disaster since day one. I’ve caused more problems than helped anyone really.’
The teenagers met through a mutual friend at school and discovered they shared the same view on life: ‘That it was s**t, it was going downhill and it was only going to get worse.’
After their arrests, police found a note in the girl’s diary which read: ‘I want to be cremated and I want mine and [my boyfriend’s] ashes to be scattered at our special place... We don’t give a f*** any more.’
Describing the girl’s apathy towards the murders, prosecutor Peter Joyce, QC, said: ‘Afterwards she said she felt “a bit sad” … as if it was a goldfish or a hamster.’
Both murderers face indefinite detention, the juvenile equivalent of an adult’s life term. They will be sentenced next month.
Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Martin Holvey, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: ‘This tragedy was distressing for all involved. For Katie’s school friends, for Elizabeth’s colleagues, friends and the children at the school where she worked – as well as having a shocking impact on the community.
‘What makes this case even more shocking is that the defendants were 14 years of age when they planned these callous, senseless and unprecedented attacks. This has left a number of lives in ruins.’
Although Mrs Edwards and Katie were described as ‘inseparable’, tragedy followed them beyond their deaths. A family feud led to the victims being laid to rest in different locations, with separate funerals, on separate days.
‘No hint of remorse’