Killer 'wanted to scare sister'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/bradford/6980130.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A teenage girl who killed her sister with a carving knife has told a court she "just wanted to scare her".

The 14-year-old admits manslaughter but denies murdering her 16-year-old sister at their home in the Ovenden area of Halifax, West Yorkshire, on 26 March.

She told Bradford Crown Court that an argument escalated after they swapped insults about boyfriends, but she did not intend to kill her sister.

She said: "I am sorry and I love her and I want her back."

Sobbing in the dock, the defendant said the pair started arguing because she had borrowed a white top from her sister without asking.

I didn't think it was fair because she said something about my boyfriend first and she wanted me to apologise The 14-year-old defendant "We were arguing about clothes, then we started arguing about lads," she told the court.

"I said something about her boyfriend, that he wouldn't amount to anything.

"She came over and I was sat in the chair and she was trying to punch me so I was trying to kick her away.

"She walked back over to the fireplace and I stood up after that and she just ran at me and grabbed my hair.

"Then she sat down in the chair and she was pulling it with both hands. She was just booting me in the head, kicking me in the head.

"My mum was trying to get her hands off me. She was saying no, not until she apologises.

"I didn't think it was fair because she said something about my boyfriend first and she wanted me to apologise."

The court has heard the older girl was devoted to her boyfriend and would "go mad" if anyone said anything bad about him.

Severe bleeding

When the pair were separated the defendant ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and ran back into the living room, the court heard.

She said: "I just wanted to scare her with it but I stabbed her in the side."

Philippa McAtasney, defending, asked: "Did you intend to kill her?"

"No," said the defendant.

The court heard that the knife punctured a lung and caused severe internal bleeding.

The injured sister picked up the knife, which had been dropped, and stabbed the defendant in the back of the leg.

Both girls were taken to Calderdale Royal Hospital, but the older girl's condition deteriorated and she died about four hours later.

Asked how she felt about what happened, the defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "I am sorry and I love her and I want her back."