A mother has described her nine-year-old daughter as 'bubbly and happy' after a dance class, just before the girl was allegedly stabbed to death by a teenage boy, a court has heard.
Aria Thorpe died from a stab wound to the chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year. A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies charges of murder and manslaughter.
In a victim impact statement read to the jury at Bristol Crown Court, Aria's mother Victoria Hull, known as Tori, recounted the final hours she spent with her daughter. On the morning of December 15, she helped Aria get ready for school. At 3.10pm, Ms Hull went to collect her but forgot about the dance class. Aria wanted to stay, so her mother returned at 4.30pm.
'Aria said she had a really good day,' Ms Hull said. 'We went to Aldi and got mini-pizzas and toppings. We got home at 4.45pm and made the pizzas. Aria was eating her pizza, sitting on the sofa in the living room. She was watching YouTube on the television.'
Ms Hull cut the pizza with scissors, and Aria used her hands to eat. 'Aria seemed bubbly and happy because she had a good dance class,' she added. 'Aria asked me if she could have the last Oreo after her food and I said yes. She said something like 'see you after work mummy'. I replied 'see you after work, love you'.'
Ms Hull then left for her evening shift at Pontins to earn extra money for Christmas. Later, she became aware that people were trying to contact her and left work, arriving at a friend's house at 7.18pm. 'The police were there,' she said. 'This is when I found out about Aria. I phoned my mum. Female police officers took me to my parents' house. It was all a blur.'
The court has previously heard that after the stabbing, the teenage boy went to a nearby railway station and told a group of children what he had done. A 14-year-old girl called 999 and directed police to the platform where the boy was waiting to board a train. In the call, she said the boy claimed he had 'stabbed' Aria and that she was 'dead on the living room floor'.
In a police interview, the girl described the boy as 'anxious' and 'shaking'. 'I had a feeling that something wasn't right,' she told an officer. 'I got one of my friends to distract him because I went down and called the police. I didn't know if he still had a knife on him.' She added that when police arrived, the boy ran over the bridge and jumped on a train. Officers stopped the train and arrested him.
Another boy, aged 13, said the defendant told him he stabbed Aria 'on accident'. 'He was anxious. He saw police cars going past and said 'they are probably looking for me'.' A 12-year-old girl told police the boy ran towards the train and 'saluted' to another child as he boarded.
The girl described how the defendant sat with the group on a bench at the station. 'We were all guessing what he had done. He sat there going 'I can't say'. We were guessing 'did you kill someone', someone asked that. He looked up and smirked, looked down and put his head back up again.'
A 12-year-old boy told police: 'He was saying 'I've done something really bad, I'm going to go to jail for a long time'.'
Police Constable Timothy Stride attended Worle train station and saw the boy running onto a train. He shouted to staff to stop the train and went on board to locate the defendant. He arrested the teenager on suspicion of attempted murder at 6.19pm. 'I could feel him shaking,' Pc Stride said. 'I advised him to take some deep breaths.'
In a police interview, the boy gave a prepared statement describing how he stabbed Aria 'in the chest'. He told officers: 'I didn't use a lot of force, but it was a big knife. I don't know why I did it, it just happened… I walked over and stabbed her. She fell to the floor.'
The trial before Mrs Justice O'Farrell continues.
