Family friends compare Twilight killer girl to Myra Hindley… as violent boyfriend transformed her into brutal murderer
The unnamed 15-year-old girl was yesterday found guilty of murdering Liz and Katie Edwards in their beds
FAMILY friends of a schoolgirl who murdered a mum and daughter with her teenage boyfriend said yesterday: “She’s just like Myra Hindley.”
The girl, 14 when Liz Edwards, 49, and 13-year-old daughter Katie were stabbed and smothered in their beds, was yesterday found guilty of their murder.
The court had heard she was the “driving force” behind the killings, carried out by her 14-year-old boyfriend, who admitted murder.
But after a verdict that made the pair Britain’s youngest double murderers, a family friend of the girl claimed her relationship with the boy transformed her from a quiet teenager into a killer — like in the case of Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
The friend said: “Look at Hindley and Brady, if Myra didn’t get with Brady she wouldn’t have been a murderer.
“And I think it’s the case when this girl and boy got together. Something clicked and then it grew. She would never have done this before she got with him.
“Although she did have issues, she was a lovely, quiet girl. It’s hard to understand.”
The girl’s trial heard how she and her boyfriend plotted the murders as revenge over a grudge she held.
After breaking into the home of church-going dinner lady Liz and murdering her and Katie, the killers had sex then cuddled up together to watch the Twilight vampire romance movies.
As the jury returned its verdict yesterday the girl, now 15, showed no emotion. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, adjourning sentencing until next month, told Nottingham crown court that the case was “truly exceptional”.
Afterwards Detective Chief Inspector Martin Holvey said: “What makes this case even more shocking is that these two were just 14 when they planned and committed these callous, senseless and unprovoked attacks. This case has left a number of lives in ruins.”
The week-long trial heard how the girl and her boyfriend, who is also now 15, met in McDonald’s to plan their murder.
As they broke into the house in Spalding, Lincs, he was carrying a backpack full of kitchen knives.
The boy straddled sleeping Liz in her bed and twice stabbed her in the throat with an eight-inch blade then smothered her.
He then moved into Katie’s room and murdered her in the same way. The killers stripped and had a bath together to wash off the blood.
They spent 36 hours in the house watching the Twilight saga, drinking and eating ice cream before police found them.
The girl, who had admitted manslaughter but denied murder, gave a sickeningly detailed account of the murders in her police interview.
She said she initially stayed outside Liz’s bedroom during her murder but added: “I went in to see what was happening because I heard noises and stuff and wanted to check if he was OK.
“Because I heard her like gurgling, I went to check. He was on top of her. He had a pillow over her face.
“There was a little bit of blood splattered on the wall, like four drops — and there was a lot of blood on the bed and some on the floor.”
The court heard the killers had originally intended that the girl would murder Katie and the boy kill Liz.
But she told police he had killed both because she “lacked the mental and physical strength”.
Prosecutor Peter Joyce said the girl had later admitted being “sad” about the killings — but added: “It was ‘sad’ as if she was talking about a goldfish or a hamster.”
He said the girl’s “sheer brutality and utter contempt oozed from every pore” during interviews.
A psychiatric report for the defence said the girl suffered from “anxious avoidance detachment disorder” due to a troubled relationship in her early years.
Child psychiatrist Dr Indranil Chakrabarti said this meant she could not connect properly with anyone later in life.
But prosecution experts rubbished the claims. The girl told them she felt “excited” about killing. She said: “I was carrying on as normal at school. I was looking forward to it.”
- MYRA Hindley and Ian Brady killed five children aged ten to 17 between July 1963 and October 1965. Hindley, who was infatuated with Brady, was dubbed “the most evil woman in Britain”.
'Boy was trouble'
THE boy who murdered Liz and Katie had been in trouble with the police before and was expelled from school for his unruly behaviour.
The girl is said to have fallen for him after he threw a chair across a classroom.
They ran away together in the months before the murders and were tracked down by police after three days sleeping rough.
Friends say he had always been prone to violence — but was prepared to “do anything” once he had her backing.
A mum who knew both teenagers said: “This is all down to him, getting in her head. He was so controlling. I saw her in the street once and put my hand up to say hello and she went to wave back. But he pulled her hand back down and dragged her away.
“From that day I knew something bad was going on with him — I got a bad vibe. He used to hang around with the wrong crowd.
"I think he wanted her to watch him do the murder so she would have to take the rap as well.
“I think she got herself in too deep and couldn’t get back out. We can’t understand why all of sudden she turned from a loving girl into a nasty person.”
Scars from past
TO the outside world the girl seemed a shy, anxious 14-year-old — but she was deeply-troubled by a traumatic childhood.
Her dad, a violent drug addict, left the family when she was very young and she had to live in a refuge with her mum. At one stage she was put in care after her mother punched her in the face.
Defence psychiatrist Dr Indranil Chakrabarti said the violent home life meant she struggled to forge relationships in later life.
Dr Chakrabarti added: “Normally a young person will go to their mother or father as a safe person. If they cannot go to that safe person they get anxious and try to solve problems themselves, often by running away.”
The girl had once told social workers: “When I am trapped I feel like I will burst and do something really stupid.”
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She also gave one teacher a note that read: “Dear Miss, I feel so lonely, depressed. But also I feel like no one cares.”
The girl was also unsettled when her estranged dad tried to make contact with her just a month before the killings.
But family friends and experts agreed it was her relationship with the boy that awoke her dark side — and ultimately led to the murders.