.png)
3 hours ago
1
A 14-year-old schoolgirl has been found guilty of attempted murder after attacking two teachers and another pupil with a bladed multitool at a school in south Wales.
The teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, and a pupil who cannot be named, were treated in hospital after being stabbed at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, on 24 April last year.
Following a week-long trial at Swansea crown court, the girl was found guilty of attempted murder.
The judge, Paul Thomas KC, thanked members of the jury for their work in a “difficult and unusual” trial. “At the end of the day if she was not a 14-year-old girl and had been an adult the most likely outcome would have been a life sentence,” he said.
The judge said he would adjourn sentencing until 28 April for the preparation of pre-sentence reports, including a psychology report.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, used a bladed multitool belonging to her father.
She previously pleaded guilty to three counts of wounding with intent and a further count of possession of a bladed article on a school premises, but denied attempted murder.
As the girl, who was a pupil at the school, attacked the first teacher, she was accused of yelling: “I’m going to fucking kill you,” and pulling out a blade.
The jury heard she had told friends she was going to “do something stupid that could get me expelled” that could involve Elias, on the day of the attack.
After she was arrested, the girl made a series of unsolicited comments in the back of a police vehicle, telling officers: “I stabbed her – oopsies.”
“I’m pretty sure this is going to be on the news, so more eyes will be looking at me,” she said. “That’s one way to be a celebrity.”
She also asked: “Are they dead?” and: “How am I going to face my family after what I’ve done?”
Drawings found in her home referenced Elias and the girl she attacked, with one note saying the girl would “burn” and another said “cut their mouths and eyes”.
During the trial, the girl told jurors she was sorry for the incident and could not remember large parts of what happened. “It doesn’t sound like me. It doesn’t feel like something I would do,” she said.
Swansea crown court heard the teenager, who was 13 at the time of the incident, attacked the teachers during the morning break. She then moved on to stab another girl before being restrained by staff.
All three victims survived the attack. Hopkin, who was stabbed in the neck, had to be flown to Cardiff by air ambulance.
