Sunday People

Did you win?

- By PATRICK HILL

TWILIGHT murder victim Elizabeth Edwards feared her daughter’s evil boyfriend had “a million problems”, it has emerged.

Worried mum Elizabeth was sure Lucas Markham was a bad influence on daughter Kim and begged her to dump him.

But besotted Kim refused to listen – and the relationsh­ip led to a horrific frenzy in which the pair, both just 14, murdered Elizabeth and her younger daughter Katie.

Last night a family friend said: “Elizabeth was just trying to protect her daughter from this horrible person.

“She said, ‘He’s no good for you, he’s got a million problems. You can do better than that’. But Kim refused to listen and even blamed her mum for trying to drive a wedge between them.

“If she had listened she would still be out walking the streets now.” Dinner lady Elizabeth, 49, and 13- year- old Katie were knifed and smothered with pillows by Kim and Markham in their home in Spalding, Lincs, last April.

The teenagers had intended to o commit suicide but changed their minds and had sex before eating ice cream and nd watching the vampire film Twilight.t.

The pair – the youngestt double killers in British history – were later given 20- year minimum terms.

Their identities were kept a secret until Friday, when the Courtrt of Appeal cut their sentences to 17½ 7½ years and said it was “overwhelmi­ngly”ingly” in the public interest that theyy should be named.

The friend added: “I think Kim was addicted to Markham, anything he said she would do. At school she was always a bully and had been expelled a couple of times, j ust being a t ypical nightmare kid who thinks they can do what they like when they like. “But I think she got worse once she got with this guy. I think he brainwashe­d her.” Kim, who has never shown any remo remorse, told detectives she hated her mum and th thought of her as a “problem” she wanted to get rid of. The family friend a added: “I still don’t think it has dawned on Kim even now what she ha has done. ““She still thinks she’s big time bu but for a girl of that age to do something despicable like that, it’s the lowest of the low. “Neither of them should ever be let out and I hope they get their just rewards.”

 ??  ?? Markham, Kim & a knife used in crime SMITTEN: Liz with Graham
Markham, Kim & a knife used in crime SMITTEN: Liz with Graham

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