Boy, 16, ‘stabbed woman in drugs-cash row’

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy fatally stabbed a mother-of-three following an argument over money which was to be used to buy drugs, a court has heard.

Paige Gibson, 23, died after being knifed in the chest outside her flat in Halifax, West Yorkshire, earlier this year, jurors were told. A prosecutor told Bradford Crown Court how the teenager who is charged with her murder had become “increasingly angry” after she failed to give him money which he and his friends intended to use to buy drugs.

The boy had previously passed over his phone to Miss Gibson, with his friend giving her his own tablet, on the basis that she would sell them on their behalf, the court heard.

But when she failed to pass over any money, the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, shouted “watch Paige, watch”, outside her door before arming himself with a knife and stabbing her, jurors were told.

The defendant denies murdering her at the Weavers Brook flats in Ovenden, Halifax, on June 7 this year.

Giving some background to the case, prosecutor Nicholas Campbell QC said: “It was in the early hours of one Friday morning that Paige Gibson was stabbed in the chest.

“The incident took place outside her home in Halifax”.

He said that she was rushed to hospital, but added: “The evidence is that before she was even carried away from that flat corridor, all signs that she was alive had disappeared.”

Miss Gibson was declared dead within two hours and the boy himself was arrested around 60 minutes after the alleged attack, the court heard.

Mr Campbell said: “Members of the jury, the background to this case is the world of drug-taking in Halifax. You will hear how long before the stabbing lives had been ruined by the use of illicit substances. You will need to hear about its effects on those at the centre of these activities.”

The prosecutor said that Miss Gibson herself had been a user of both cannabis and crack cocaine, and lived a “squalid life, dependent on drugs”.

Mr Campbell said that the boy accused of killing her had been a “pleasure to be around” at times, but said the defendant had had a troubled life.

He told jurors that the teenager and some friends had taken drugs in a flat in the same complex as Miss Gibson’s home the night prior to her death, but had an appetite for more. The boy denies murder.

The trial continues.