An 18-year-old woman has admitted murdering a teenage love rival she stabbed during a fight over a boy in Leeds. Kayla Smith killed 16-year-old Chloe Watson Dransfield in March this year.
Chloe had been driven to Smith’s home by her boyfriend Blake Dowling, 18, who had been ‘on and off’ with both girls and ‘knew of the bad feeling’ between them, jurors were told. His mother said Smith had become ‘jealous and obsessed’ over his relationship with Chloe, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Planned Fight
The two girls had agreed to fight, and Dowling booked a taxi to take Chloe to Smith’s home in the Austhorpe area of Leeds in the early hours of March 28. Prosecutor Mark McKone KC told jurors that Smith came out of her granddad’s summer house, where she lived, followed by pal Archie Rycroft, 20.
He said Smith walked up to Chloe with a knife and stabbed her five times in her neck and back. Smith had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder, but she changed her plea and admitted the more serious charge on the second day of trial as Mr McKone was due to continue opening the prosecution case.
Co-Defendants
The trial will continue for her two co-defendants, Dowling and Rycroft, who followed Smith to the fight and is accused of recording it on a phone. Dowling and Rycroft both deny murder and manslaughter.
The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC, said he would sentence Smith once the trial was over. He warned her that the only sentence he could pass for murder was life imprisonment, but that he would need to set the minimum term she must spend in custody.
Threats and Attack
Addressing jurors, Mr McKone said that during the night and early morning leading up to the fight, Dowling was with Chloe at his mother’s house but had been in contact with Smith. Mr McKone said Smith made repeated threats over the phone to stab Chloe.
A friend of Chloe’s who was on Facetime with her that night said she heard Dowling answering his phone and heard Smith screaming: ‘Blake I’m gonna smash your head in… you better not be with no girls… Chloe better not be there.’ When Chloe said she was there, the witness heard Smith say: ‘I’m gonna stab you in your throat.’
The court heard that Chloe messaged her friend saying she was ‘off to go fight Kayla’ along with a picture of herself in the taxi. Mr McKone said CCTV showed Smith leaving her summer house at 5.10am wearing pyjamas and ‘striding quickly’ with her right hand raised, and holding something shiny.
Ring doorbell footage played in court showed Smith shouting: ‘Come on, big girl.’ Smith can then be heard saying: ‘Come on then, I will stab you.’ The stabbing was not captured on the doorbell footage, but jurors were told that a male could be heard laughing. Rycroft was seen on the footage walking behind Smith and holding a phone.
Mr McKone said: ‘It is the prosecution case that Rycroft recorded the stabbing on Kayla’s phone and that Kayla must have handed him her phone for this purpose.’ The court heard that a video has been deleted from the phone and never been recovered.
Aftermath
Chloe was taken by ambulance to hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.40am. Mr McKone said Dowling denied knowing that Chloe would be caused really serious harm, while Rycroft said he followed Smith out of curiosity and did not see that she had a knife.
He told jurors: ‘The prosecution say that Blake Dowling played a part in organising the violence. Blake Dowling assisted and encouraged Kayla Smith to be violent to (Chloe) by taking (her) to the scene for the specific purpose of a fight.’ He told jurors that Rycroft ‘deliberately encouraged Kayla Smith to be violent by walking with (her) to the fight, and by trying to film (her) using violence and by providing support if needed’.
The trial continues.
