A 16-year-old boy has been found not guilty of murdering nine-year-old Aria Thorpe, after a jury accepted his account that he accidentally stabbed her while trying to scare her. The verdict, delivered at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday, prompted some jurors to weep and Aria's mother to leave the courtroom immediately. The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, showed no visible reaction.
Aria died from a single knife wound to her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare on 15 December last year. The prosecution had argued the boy stabbed her deliberately, intending to kill or cause serious harm. But the jury accepted his explanation that he had picked up an eight-inch kitchen knife and, mimicking a fencing lunge, accidentally drove it into her chest.
“Jury clears 16-year-old of murder and manslaughter of Aria Thorpe, 9, after playfighting accident claim.”
"I was going to try and make her flinch, so I leaned forward like I was fencing," the boy told the court. His defence barrister, Andrew Langdon KC, said the boy had "made the worst decision of his life" but did not intend to kill or harm the nine-year-old. The jury also cleared him of an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Earlier that day, Aria had returned from a dance class with her mother, Victoria Hull, who recalled her daughter being "bubbly and happy". They bought mini-pizzas, and Aria asked for the last Oreo after her food. Her mother left for an evening work shift to earn extra money for Christmas, exchanging "see you after work" with her daughter. It was the last time she saw her alive.
A family friend, Ollie Sheppard, who was temporarily lodging at the house, arrived home shortly after 6pm to find Aria face down on the floor. "At first I thought she was messing around," he told the court, before he saw her school shirt covered in blood. Emergency services stopped resuscitation attempts at 18:58.
After the stabbing, the boy left the house and walked to Worle Railway Station, where he told a group of children it had been an accident. He borrowed one child's phone and searched "what happens if you kill …". Another child called 999, and police arrested him shortly after he boarded a train. The boy said he left because he was "scared" and "panicked", and that without his phone – confiscated by his mother hours earlier as punishment for being expelled from school for disruptive behaviour – he could not call for help.
In her summing up, Mrs Justice O'Farrell described the case as a "tragic and shocking case" that gave rise to "very strong feelings". After the jury left, she told the teenager: "You have been found not guilty and you will now be taken down to be processed." Aria's family had previously paid tribute to her "lively and bubbly" personality, but have been left without the answer they sought.