London, Nov 24 (AFP) A British judge today handed afive-year sentence to a 16-year-old girl accused ofmanslaughter over the death of a seven-year-old who died ofinjuries sustained in a playground attack.
Katie Rough was found near her home in York, northernEngland, in January having been attacked with a box cutter andsmothered, a case that grabbed headlines across Britain.
The defendant, who was 15 at the time of the attack, hadbeen given a life sentence with a minimum five-year term ofdetention at a previous hearing in Leeds after admittingmanslaughter due to mental issues.
Judge Michael Soole today called the case "trulyexceptional" as he issued his ruling on the teenager, whoappeared via video link, clutching a teddy bear.
Her identity was not disclosed because she was a minor.
"The gravity of the offence of killing a small childspeaks for itself," he told the court.
"The level of danger to the public is high, he added. "Inthe circumstances of your continuing silence, the criticalquestion is whether there is any reliable estimate as to howlong that danger will continue."Rough was found with severe cuts to her neck and chest ona playing field, but her death occurred after being smothered,the court had earlier heard.
Prosecutors said the defendant was suffering fromdelusional thoughts, including the belief that people "weren'thuman and were robots".
Several murders by children have rocked Britain in recentyears, including the case last year of two girls who battereda 39-year-old woman to death at her home in Hartlepool innortheastern England. They were aged 13 and 14 at the time ofthe killing.
The most notorious case involved Jon Venables and RobertThompson, who were convicted of killing two-year-old JamesBulger in Liverpool in 1993 when they were 10 years old.
Yesterday, Venables was ordered to return to prison afterbeing found with child abuse images for a second time. (AFP)KIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.