Aria Thorpe, nine, died after sustaining a knife wound to her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, with a boy, 16, standing trial on a charge of murder
A teenage boy accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl says he “acted like he was fencing” to “try and scare her” when she was fatally stabbed, a court heard.
Aria Thorpe died after sustaining a knife wound to her chest in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year. The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified due to his age, denies charges of murder and manslaughter in relation to Aria’s death.
Giving evidence to Bristol Crown Court, the boy said he was “waving around the knife”. He said: “Aria stood up and I was waving around the knife,” he told the jury. “Then at some point I decided that I was going to try to make her flinch and scare her, to get a reaction. I leaned forward, acted like I was fencing.”
The defendant said Aria had been in front of him at the time. “She had almost taken a step forward but without taking a step forward because before she could, it happened,” he said. “I don’t know what she was doing. The knife went into her. Then I pulled it out. I didn’t know what to do. She put her hand to her chest.”
The boy said Aria then fell to the floor on her front. “I thought she had died,” he told the court. “I got scared, I panicked. So I ran to the kitchen with the knife and I put it back into the sink.”
The boy then walked to a nearby train station, where he told a group of children he had killed Aria accidentally. He borrowed one of the children’s phones and searched for “what happens if you kill…”.
Another child rang police on 999 and officers attended the station – arresting the boy shortly after he boarded a train. The boy confirmed he had not checked on Aria after she was injured, had not rung for an ambulance or raised the alarm.
Andrew Langdon KC, representing the boy, asked how he was feeling about what had happened. “I felt horrible,” the boy replied. The following day, the boy gave a prepared statement to police officers during an interview.
This stated he had “stabbed her in the chest” and was not sure why. Mr Langdon asked why the statement did not reference that it had been an accident.
The boy said: “All I thought was I was the one who murdered Aria and all I wanted to do was admit guilt to it. I just said that I stabbed her and that was it. I just took the blame because it was my fault.”
On Thursday, Home Office pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery told the court Aria died as a result of a single stab wound to her chest, which went through her heart.
Dr Jeffery added that Aria would have died “very swiftly” from the injury. Aria attended school on the day of her death and was collected from an after-school dance class by her mother, Tori Hull, at about 4.30pm.
Family friend Ollie Sheppard found Aria on the floor of the living room and rang 999, with police and paramedics arriving a short time later. Tragically, Aria could not be saved and was pronounced dead at 6.58pm.
The trial, before Mrs Justice O’Farrell, continues.
