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.

Your argument hinges on ‘threatening her’ and his hinges on ‘playing with her’

The jury had no choice but to acquit whether you like it or not

What danger? We are entitled to discuss a verdict now the case is over. This isn’t North Korea.

How does it sound like an awful accident? If what is said is true about him changing his story to police and his actions afterwards, this doesn’t sound like a terrible accident at all, he sounds like a violent young man who wouldn’t be out in the community.

To the pp who said ‘what if he had a brain injury’ even more reason for him to be placed somewhere where he can’t hurt anyone else. Same goes for if he is autistic etc, he is a danger to the community. He stabbed a young girl in a familiar setting because he didn’t break in did he, he’s known to the family.

Quote from the defendant:

‘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.'

What is the difference between scaring somebody with a knife and threatening them with a knife?

Is "playfighting" the children's version of the "rough sex gone wrong" defence?

Taking a knife and pointing it at someone is legal?

Of course they had a choice 😂 that’s what they do - they choose the verdict. Juries are not consistent hence why retrials can return different results.

I can’t believe how many are saying ‘well the jury had all the facts, they are right’. Have you seen how many injustices there have been recently?

Words fail me. So if I was ‘play fighting’ with a hammer and ‘accidentally’ caved someone’s head in, I should be totally exonerated?

It's reasonable to see this as just another example of juries not wanting to criminalise a young man. I am incredibly triggered by this case as it happened to my daughter after a long period of stalking by her ex boyfriend. Police told her there was so much evidence - and there was. I was terrified for months that he would kill her. But he was found not guilty yet given a restraining order. How does that work? The criminal justice system simply doesn't work for victims of male violence. Bring on the non jury trials!

I’m so sorry to hear that @Arran2024 and hope your DD is ok. It is shocking how male violence against women is not treated seriously.

Unfortunately judges also have a blind spot in this area, as we know from the recent case where the judge decided that the boys who had raped underage girls should not have prison sentences and praised the boys for their good behaviour during the trial.

Verbatim from the article

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.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/aria-thorpe-stabbing-weston-super-mare-death-teen-not-guilty-b3003017.html

Fucking appalling however you want to try and dress that up.

A girl at the station he told rang 999 and reported it....

I am shaking my head again at posters who have a stance . Who says we cannot discuss a case after it has been tried? That would be a new degree of censorship.

They say with “authority” and supreme moral superiority that we cannot question verdicts, or even discuss any of the process leading up to it. See the Crocodile Incident threads!

What about the pro-Palestinian protestors who broke into the arms factory and the man who put a sledgehammer in the back of a policewoman? I bet they want to discuss that one all right 😡

Agreed. I would argue play fighting with a knife would fall in to the same category though. It is foreseeable that an accident could occur. Most parents of toddlers have a lock on the knife drawer for this exact reason, not because they fear their toddler will deliberately stab someone but because if they play with a knife the chances of someone being hurt or dying are high.

@MaturingCheeseball

I think it’s incredibly important that we discuss and draw attention to cases where violence against women and girls is minimised, not treated sufficiently seriously or not giving rise to the serious consequences. There have been multiple instances of terrible decisions where justice has not been served for women and which have been reviewed following public outcry.

It makes me question juries in general. In fact, I have been doing so for some time. They can get so twisted and turned around by laws that the ordinary Joe Bloggs wouldn't understand (look at posters on here). They seem to forget the simple facts of the case by the end, which are (or should be) obvious to all looking on.

The only thing I can think of as to why the decision may have gone this way, is that perhaps it would have caused even more upset to people within the court. Even so, my 11 year old daughter could end up meeting him one day - bloody terrifying thought.

Anyway, here we are again with another female let down by the system. Its heartbreaking.

The only thing I can think of as to why the decision may have gone this way, is that perhaps it would have caused even more upset to people within the court.

This

I think this was jury nullification and given the secrecy over his relationship to the victim there's a very obvious potential reason why they might have done this.

@Dollymylove the identity and relationship of the boy is not public knowledge. If we speculate mumsnet will take down the thread, so it’s best not to guess or comment about his identity.

I imagine the only real compelling evidence that they used as part of the basis for the not guilty verdict is the one bit of information that cannot be discussed.

Agreed. Something must’ve happened during the trial for them to come to this conclusion. I cannot fathom how he got a not guilty verdict otherwise.

Have reported that post

No need to speculate about the identity of the boy on the post, it’s all over Facebook. RIP to Aria, what a sad sad case 😢

This case keeps reminding me of when I was a bit older than Aria, probably about 11, I was round playing at my best friend’s house. Her three brothers decided it was a good idea for them to throw knives at us from the doorway as we watched a film. Most of what they threw were blunt dinner knives but a few were sharp knives. It was bloody terrifying. They were “playing” if you like, age probably 16, 15 and 11, but we definitely weren’t and we were stuck in the room. Luckily they missed hadn’t hit us by the time one of her parents came home and made them stop.

I’m absolutely amazed to find out that if one of those knives had hit me it would have been no crime since they were “playing”. We were t playing and I’m sure poor Aria wasn’t either. It’s not a game if one person is 6 years older and the other is unarmed. It’s an attack.

This is reported in Sky News:

‘The prosecution's case is that the boy stabbed Aria deliberately, intending to kill her or cause her really serious harm, the judge said.
The prosecution claims his action was one that any reasonable person would realise was bound to put Aria at risk of physical harm.
The judge said the boy "accepts he stabbed Aria with the kitchen knife but he says it was an accident".
"His intention was to scare her," she continued. "He held the knife in his hand and lurched or jabbed towards her.
"He didn't intend to kill her and did not intend to cause her really serious injury."
The jurors have been urged to reach a unanimous verdict.’

What I find incredible is that the jury didn’t think a boy of 15 would know he was likely to cause serious harm by doing ninja moves (as he describes it) and jabbing the knife at a young girl.