A teenager who smothered a seven-year-old girl to death before slashing her throat with a knife to see if she was a 'robot' has been given a life sentence.

Katie Rough died after she was smothered by the 16-year-old killer, who can't be named for legal reasons, and then slashed her with a Stanley knife in a park in York, in January.

The defendant, who admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility at a previous hearing, appeared by video-link at Leeds Crown Court as Katie’s family looked on from the jury box.

Katie was found with severe lacerations to her neck and stomach on a playing field in January and did not respond to frantic attempts to revive her.

The court heard in July how the teenager was standing in a nearby cul-de-sac, covered in blood and carrying a blood-stained Stanley knife as she rang 999 to tell police what she had done.

The judge was told she may have been trying to prove the youngster was not a robot, as she had ‘irrational beliefs’ about how people ‘may not be human and may be controlled by a higher and hostile force’, a court heard earlier this year.

Prosecutors said she had reported delusional thoughts as well as depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

They said the girl had talked of being convinced that people ‘weren’t human and were robots’.

Full story - https://www.veeinsider.com/news/teenager-who-slashed-seven-year-old-girls-throat-sentenced-to-life/