A 16-year-old boy has been cleared of murdering nine-year-old Aria Thorpe after telling jurors he stabbed her in the chest with an eight-inch knife by accident while trying to scare her. The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, was also found not guilty of an alternative charge of manslaughter by a jury at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday.
Incident at home in Weston-super-Mare
Aria Thorpe died after sustaining a knife wound to her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year. After the incident, the boy left Aria’s home and went to a nearby railway station, where he told a group of children that her death was an accident. He later told the jury that he had picked up a knife from the kitchen of Aria’s home and went into the lounge, where she was sitting on the sofa, to scare her.
The boy demonstrated moving the knife in a ninja-style way before jabbing it towards Aria as if he was fencing. He said the knife accidentally went into Aria, causing the fatal injury. Jurors returned verdicts of not guilty to both charges. After the verdicts, some members of the public gallery, including Aria’s mother Tori Hull, left the courtroom quietly. They had earlier been warned by trial judge Mrs Justice O’Farrell not to show any emotion when the verdicts were delivered.
Judge thanks jury for their work
Mrs Justice O’Farrell told the jury: 'Members of the jury, I want to express my thanks to you for the work that you have done in this case – your careful attention to all of the evidence and the speeches as part of your civic duty. I appreciate that this has been a distressing case. I am grateful to you for undertaking this difficult task with fortitude and calm reflection.' After the jury left the courtroom, the judge told the teenager: 'You have been found not guilty and you will now be taken down to be processed.'
Boy's account of the stabbing
During the trial, the boy said he had wanted to scare Aria and picked up the knife, which had a 21cm blade, from near the kitchen sink before going into the lounge. He told the jury: 'Aria stood up and I was waving around the knife. 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.' He 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. 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. I got scared, I panicked. So I ran to the kitchen with the knife and I put it back into the sink.' He did not check on Aria after she was injured, did not raise the alarm with neighbours or ring for an ambulance. The boy walked to Worle railway station, where he told a group of children that he had killed Aria accidentally. His mobile phone had previously been confiscated by his mother and he borrowed the phone of a boy at the station. He then searched for 'what happens if you kill…'. A girl at the train station rang police on 999 to report what the boy had said and police quickly attended. The boy ran onto a train, which police stopped from departing the station. He was then arrested. When asked how he was feeling about what happened at that time, the boy replied: 'I felt horrible.'
Forensic evidence and mother's account
Home Office pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery found Aria died from a single stab wound, which went through her heart. Dr Jeffery told the jury that Aria would have died 'very swiftly' from the injury, which was between 7.5 and 8cm deep. 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. Ms Hull said Aria had had 'a really good day' and seemed 'bubbly and happy' by the time she had to leave for work in the evening. '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. 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. Family friend Ollie Sheppard, who was staying temporarily at the house, returned there after work at about 6pm. He 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.
