Guilty of murder, mum aged 17 who stabbed teen to death at party
A TEENAGE girl has become one of Scotland’s youngest female murderers after being found guilty of stabbing a boy to death at a party.
The killer – who was just 17 and pregnant at the time – plunged a knife into the neck of Conner Cowper in April.
She attacked the 18-year-old only hours after they met, following a row in which he branded her a ‘stupid wee girl’. A jury at the High Court in Glasgow heard that after stabbing Mr Cowper and fleeing the scene – a flat in Holytown, Lanarkshire – the girl said: ‘I want him f ****** dead.’
She later headbutted a police officer who found her near the property and asked for her knife back.
The girl – who gave birth while on remand at Corton Vale jail, Stirling – denied murder and claimed she lashed out in self-defence. She told the court she had been affected by a previous abusive relationship.
But she was found guilty yesterday of murder, with Judge Lord Arthurson saying: ‘This was the murder of a young man who you hardly knew and whose life was brutally cut short with a kitchen knife.’
The court heard Mr Cowper had ‘fancied’ the girl but she kissed another young man.
The girl told the jury she had only known Mr Cowper through social media before the party, adding: ‘He was a nice person.’
It was claimed Mr Cowper was ‘flirting’ with her but when the girl was not interested, his ‘attitude changed’ and he started arguing with her when she kissed someone else.
Her QC, Tony Graham, asked: ‘What did you think?’
She replied: ‘I thought he was going to assault me.’
But prosecutor Mark McGuire told the court Mr Cowper had posed ‘no risk’ to the girl and said she had been ‘embarassed’ after being ‘called out’ for trying to cause friction between her victim and the man she kissed.
Mr McGuire said: ‘You came into the room angry, enraged, humiliated.
‘You saw that knife, Conner called you a “stupid wee girl” and when he turned his back, you picked it up.’
Mr McGuire said the girl had ‘exploded’ and stabbed the teenager.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons is due to be sentenced on January 10.