Teen Holds Stuffed Toy While Receiving Life Sentence for Murder of 7-Year-Old Girl

A teenage girl has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of five years in detainment after she suffocated a 7-year-old girl.

Katie Rough was playing in a field near her home in Woodthorpe, York on January 9 when she was attacked by a then 15-year-old girl and smothered to death, before being cut with a Stanley knife.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
The defendant, who can not be named, denied murder but admitted to manslaughter “due to diminished responsibility at a previous hearing,” reports the #NewYorkPost.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
The judge, Mr. Justice Soole said, “The level of danger to the public is high. In the circumstances of your continuing silence, the critical question is whether there is any reliable estimate as to how long that danger will continue.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Rough was found with deep cuts to her neck and chest after she and the teenager had left to play together. Soole said to the defendant that what happened on the field “is known only to you”.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
“Further and most disturbing evidence points to this being planned and based on delusional thoughts,” he said.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
He added: “In this truly exceptional case, I have concluded that it is necessary to impose a sentence of detention for life.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
The court reported that a full psychiatric assessment had been requested for the teen, and the possibility of psychosis had come up just a month prior, however, no investigation was carried out.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
A friend reportedly told authorities that the teenager self-harmed and enjoyed talking about death, as she had once said that she dreamed of killing someone and often heard voices in her head.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Two days before killing Katie, she posted a picture to Instagram of self-harm wounds on her arms made with pencil sharpener blades. The caption read: “Mentally, seriously, not OK”.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
The teenager’s defense barrister, Nicholas Johnson QC, said his client had been telling people of “delusional and bizarre thoughts” for months, including the “genuine belief in her head that her family and many others were not human and may be controlled by a higher and hostile force.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
After murdering the young girl, she reportedly stood in the cul-de-sac, covered in blood with a Stanley knife in hand, before calling the police to report what she had done.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
On Friday, experts told the court that they could not agree on a diagnosis of the girl’s mental state, nor could they decide how long it would take before they would not consider the girl a danger to herself and others. The judge said all of this was due to the girl not engaging with doctors.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Katie’s parents watched on in court as the teen, who sat with a stuffed toy in her hand, was sentenced.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀
In a statement read by a police officer, the family said: “Our story is about a loving home and family that was torn apart on a day 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 our grandson.”