Teenage boy acquitted of murder and manslaughter after killing girl

[StarlightRobot]

Is anyone else baffled by the acquittal of a teenage boy who stabbed and killed nine year old Aria Thorpe. I can vaguely understand the acquittal for murder but how on earth has he been acquitted for manslaughter? He got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her in the cheat while she was eating her dinner for goodness’ sake! Then he left her bleeding to death and hid on a train. It’s another example of the lives of girls just not mattering.

the family thought it was a tragic accident

Well they would, wouldn't they!

He came home in a filthy temper after being suspended from school, got a bollocking, had his phone confiscated. Then decided to have a friendly play fight where only he had a knife and stabbed a girl by implausible accident. After that he immediately ran away to a station and borrowed a phone, not to call for help but to google “what happens if you kill someone”.

Which sentence there looks out of place?

I suspect the jury came to their verdict because they were reluctant to give a young lad a life sentence for a moment of rage. The people who choose to believe this lad's implausible version of events can't hide behind that excuse.

Ah, I didn’t know that! I guess forensic advances are the enemy of anyone relying on double jeopardy after a previous acquittal.

But surely if they thought he was guilty of killing her, they'd have opted for manslaughter – that he did indeed kill her, but it wasn't intentional.

It sounds more like they believed the pathology evidence that even though he was holding the knife in her direction, he didn't cause her to be impaled.

So why didn't they hand down a manslaughter verdict – that he did kill her but didn't mean to? They had that option but decided it wasn't his fault entirely.

HER family said that, in the days after she was killed.

Same reason, IMHO, because they thought the family had suffered enough and didn't need an extra nightmare to go through and another life ruined.

@Passingthrough123

If you read my comments in this thread you will see why I believe the decision was way off the mark.

You’re right that I wasn’t in court and I am relying on what the media has reported. Based on what has been reported, I am baffled and concerned by the manslaughter acquittal. We know from the reports that Aria was having her dinner on the sofa, the boy went into the kitchen, got a knife, he described waving the knife around and jabbing at her to scare her, and then stabbing her, leaving her to die, going to the train station and borrowing a phone to google ‘what to do if you have killed someone’, telling the teenagers he has killed someone (and at this point he could have asked them to call 999 to help her), then getting on a train and hiding from police. The boy didn’t initially raise the playfighting defence when police questioned him, this came up later and the jury believed it.

I also know that there have been some worrying recent decisions recently where male violence against women and girls has not been treated seriously, for example where a judge has decided that boys that gang raped and filmed the rape of underage girls did not need to go to prison and even praised the boys for being well behaved in court.

We also know that for decades, where police had the facts about the grooming gangs, they did not think rape of underage girls was serious.

We know that a jury with all the facts decided to acquit a man who hit a policewoman in the back with a sledgehammer.

Accepting that those who have all the facts are making right decision is how injustice continues. So no, if something does not make sense to me, I won’t just accept that the jury must have made a good evidence-based decision. There is enough information available to raise serious questions about what seems to be a great injustice.

I believe there has to be new and compelling evidence for a new trial after acquittal.
Although in my opinion the evidence was already there with bells on.
I wonder if the family have been moved away as those in the locality will know who they are

Tell me you're missing a critical bit of information without telling me you're missing a critical bit of information.

And the next girl he kills is just collateral damage?

Even if he didn’t cause her to be impaled it can still be manslaughter.

Consider my rock example again. If I stood over a motorway bridge throwing rocks, and somebody drove under the bridge and one of my rocks landed on their windscreen causing it to shatter and kill them, I would be guilty of manslaughter because I did something illegal and dangerous which caused their death - even though they drove towards me, and it wasn’t certain or my intention that that would happen.

The fact is he did something very dangerous and illegal, and it resulted directly in her death. I don’t see it as being any more complicated than that.

Please don’t forget that juries are ordinary flawed people and their decisions, although the jury system is a lesser evil IMO, can be erroneous or different from what another jury would decide under similar circumstances. We don’t know the background, sex or life experiences of the jurors.

I find it tragic that a little girls life is so cheap.

I’m not surprised, the sort of teenage boys who engage in this sort of behaviour, using knives to threaten and scare 9 year olds in their house, often have been enabled and pandered to by their parents.

Which is why I said "Which is of no help to the next girl he stabs to death." and why pretty much every post I've made makes that point.

The one thing you've neglected to mention is the pathologist's evidence in court, as that would have determined the force of the knife, the angle it went in, etc, which would show whether it was thrust at her or whether she came towards it – which would have been crucial in shaping the jury's verdict. The prosecution claimed he wilfully stabbed her, while the defence said he waved the knife and the jump-scare made her move and that's how she became impaled. Both sides will have presented expert forensic testimony – and the jury believed the prosecution got it wrong. As for the aftermath, depending on which newspaper you read, his actions were those of a scared and confused teen making a run for it, or a brazen killer trying to escape. And that's my entire point – you are basing this whole thread off highly edited and angled court reporting.

I absolutely agree that cases of violence against women aren't always handled well, but I do have some experience of sitting in courtrooms and following trials for my first job years ago, and I was often astonished at how the court reporting bore so little resemblance to what was said in court. So when a verdict like this happens, where it seems like a surprise, I never take what's published in newspapers at face value, because I know that what jury will have been told is most likely very different.

You don't understand the law or what manslaughter means. It doesn't mean 'killed but didn't mean to'. Nor does it mean that being aquitted of murder or manslaughter means the jury decided it wasn't his fault. They decided it was his fault but that he wasn't guilty of murder or manslaughter.

In the UK there is involuntary manslaughter which falls into 2 groups- unlawful act manslaughter so the defendant intended to commit a crime but didn't intend for it to result in death. Doesn't apply here.

Gross negligence manslaughter - someone with a duty of care to the deceased failed to take actions to prevent a death. Doesn't apply here - this is for employers, organisations, care homes etc.

Voluntary manslaughter by diminished responsibility would mean the defendant intended to kill or cause serious harm but ND or mental illness impairs their responsibility. Doesn't apply here.

Voluntary manslaughter by loss of control would mean the defendant intended to cause serious harm or kill but acted in response to circumstances that caused them to lack self-control. You'll see this in cases where e.g someone kills someone who sexually abused them or their child.

Corporate manslaughter - doesn't apply.

I was on the other post of this which has now been deleted, I’ve not read all the comments on here yet.. but people were questioning where her dad was and suggesting neglect is to blame.. we all know mum was at work and had left her in the care of an older teenager. Which isn’t neglect , nor out of the ordinary.

mum and dad are separated, both in new blended families. Aria was at her mums home. She had one full sister from both mum and dad. She had a step brother of similar age, and half sister of which a baby on dad’s side. She had step brothers and sisters of various ages on mums side.

her dad has posted the following to Facebook and asked it to be shared far and wide -
“EVIDENCE GIVEN IN COURT;

Prosecution: Are you blaming Aria for her own death?...

Defendant: No...

Prosecution: So who's to blame then?...

Defendant: It was me, It was my fault 100%, I grabbed the knife from the kitchen and stabbed her, she did nothing wrong, she didn't make me angry, I just walked into the kitchen grabbed the knife and stabbed her. I thought it would be funny and tried to jump scare her, but she didn't react the way I thought she would.

I was doing this....
Defendant waves the knife around in a ninja motion whilst stood toe to toe with Aria

I then did a move like I was fencing and jabbed the knife to her to make her flinch but she didn't move.

How does the above not result in manslaughter?!
The mind boggles 🤯

This is a formal invitation for any press or reporters to contact me to share stories, Joy and the love that Aria had for this world 😪
#ariathorpe #itsnotfunny

Feel free to share”

Her uncle has posted the following, asking it to be shared far and wide -
”The British justice system has failed our family!

As one of the uncles of Aria Thorpe, I am distraught, angry, and disappointed in our country. What’s happened over the last two weeks has been truly traumatic for everyone!

Aria’s Dad, Aria’s Mum, Aria’s Uncle, Aria’s Grandad and other family members ALL served for the British Army!
Our family have paid taxes all our lives, we have always helped people in need and we have trusted and always lived by the law!

Yet when it comes to justice for our Aria, the justice system has completely let us down.

In the police evidence the jury heard that the killer did the below, now read the below and tell me this isn’t concerning and doesn’t build a case that any level headed person would say was GUILTY!

They heard he changed a WhatsApp group name in early hours of that morning to:

“I am going to KMS” - the killer said it meant “I am going to KILL MYSELF” - I and many others read it as three words - “KILL MY S***”

He then changed it to a Birmingham postcode gang reference with awful emojis -
“B11 🥷🔫🔪”

HE THEN GOT EXPELLED from school and went home to have his phone taken from him, an hour later decided to stab Aria! He then he put the knife in the sink, got a coat on, put the dogs away, and walked over Aria and ran to the train station to brag about doing the act.

His mum told in her statement that: once he got in her face and said if she was to hit him he would hit her back!
She also stated that he would get Aria in a headlock until she would cry and the mum would have to tell him to stop!

The jury heard much more, so did the judge, yet they all listened to him lie on the stand and say it was an accident!

I am truly angry at our justice system! And this shows other boys they can do this and get away with it!!!

I will not stop talking about this and fighting for Aria!

#Ariathorpe #justice #knifecrimeawareness”

*edited to not suggest identity of defendant.

@Passingthrough123

There is information in the public domain about the pathologist’s evidence and the single horizontal stab wound to her heart. See for example: https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/26206520.aria-thorpe-trial---home-office-pathologist-shares-evidence/

I realise you are determined to disagree with me no matter what, but I do appreciate your perspective, especially if there is a good answer to the points I have raised. But I haven’t seen anything which resolves my worry about the outcome here.

@CoolGreenBee - so we are in law missing a type of manslaughter, no?

I am waving around my hedge trimmer for a bit of fun, it flies out of my hands and over the fence and kills my neighbour. I’m off Scot free? (Actually there was a case like this, a man beheaded his wife with a hedge trimmer and said he dropped it from up a ladder… 🤔 )

Thank you for qualifying the differences. I did think manslaughter was killing without intent but I can see it's more nuanced. It doesn't change my initial point to OP though – that you cannot rely on court reporting for the full picture and that the death, while tragic, is an accident in the eyes of the law. I do wonder though why the CPS didn't also include a charge of unlawful wounding – he would've been found guilty of that.

There's no determination on my part to disagree – it's called debating! I'm just saying that you shouldn't and cannot categorically decide a jury's got it wrong based on court reporting in newspapers, which is often sensationalised.

Which family, the maternal side? As Arias fathers family have also set up social media pages condemning the sentence, her father has stated the “ justice” system has completely failed his child.