The mother of a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly fatally stabbed by a teenage boy has described their final hours together.
Aria Thorpe died after being stabbed in her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be identified due to his age, denies charges of murder and manslaughter in relation to Aria’s death.
In a statement read to the jury at Bristol Crown Court, Aria’s mother Victoria Hull – known as Tori – said she had helped her daughter get ready for school on the morning of December 15.
She then went to collect Aria at 3.10pm, forgetting her daughter had a dance class. Aria said she wanted to stay for the class, so Ms Hull 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 described how she had cut her daughter’s pizza using scissors, so Aria was using her hands to eat it. “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 headed out to work at Pontins, where she was doing evening shifts to earn extra money for Christmas. She became aware 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 previously heard that after stabbing Aria, the teenage boy went to a nearby railway station and told a group of children there what he had done. One of those children, a girl aged 14, rang police on 999 and directed them to the platform where the boy was waiting to board the next train. In the call, she told the call handler that the boy said he had “stabbed” Aria. “He is saying that he stabbed her and she is dead on the living room floor,” the girl said.
In a police interview, the girl – who cannot be identified due to her age – described the boy as “anxious” and “shaking” as he talked to them. “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. I called police and told them what had happened. A police car came. As soon as he saw the police, he ran over the bridge and jumped on the train. The police stopped the train and caught him and then he got arrested.”
Another boy, aged 13, said the defendant had told him he stabbed Aria “on accident”. “He was anxious,” he added. “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. “He saluted to my friend and stood there, then went to find a seat, then the police came,” she said. The girl described how the defendant came and sat with the group of children on a bench at the station. “We were all guessing what he had done, what’s happened,” she said. “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’.”
Pc Timothy Stride attended Worle train station and spotted the boy running on to the train. The police officer shouted to staff to stop the train from leaving and went on board to locate the defendant. He arrested the teenage boy 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 had 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.
