After the chilling case of the German schoolgirl stabbed to death by her classmates, Woman asks…
WORDS: MISHAAL KHAN. PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK. •SOURCE: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
The tragic tale of Luise Frisch has sent shockwaves across Europe. Having gone missing after a sleepover with friends last month, she was found stabbed to death in secluded woodland in Germany. She was just 12. But the most chilling detail was the fact that her killers were only children too, aged 13 and 12, and had been her classmates. Luise had been stabbed 32 times. Then, her body was pushed down a steep embankment. But what led the two young girls to carry out such a horrific crime? Woman delves deeper, looking at some of the most notorious cases of children who’ve killed…
Forgiveness over fury
In October 1994, five-year-old Silje Redergard was killed close to her home in Norway by two six-year-old boys who beat her with stones and left her naked in the snow to die. But reaction from the press and public, and even Silje’s own family, went from outrage and anger to sympathy and protectiveness. The boys remained unnamed and even Silje’s mother said she ‘felt bad’, for they were ‘just little kids’. Instead of being criminalised, the boys were forgiven and enrolled into a new school while supervised by child protection services.
Tyneside strangler
In 1968, Mary Bell, then 10, and her friend were accused of pushing a boy off an air-raid shelter. A group of parents also said Mary had tried to strangle their daughters. The same year, Mary strangled four-year-old Martin Brown in Newcastleupon-Tyne. And two months later, at age 11, she strangled three-year-old Brian Howe.
Convicted of manslaughter, Mary stayed in prison until the age of 23 in 1980, and was given anonymity for life.
Devil’s daughter
When the body of 18-year-old Katie Rackliff was found in June 1992, she had been stabbed 32 times, attacked in a sexual nature and left naked. But it wasn’t a man who’d committed the heinous crime, nor even an adult. At just 12, Sharon Carr was the UK’s youngest killer (until the death of James Bulger, who was killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson – both 10 – in 1993). Dubbed the ‘Devil’s daughter’, she received a life sentence and remains behind bars, considered too unstable for release.
Twilight killers
Lucas Markham and Kim Edwards were both 13 when they began an intense relationship. And in 2016, Lucas had a disturbing idea: they should kill Kim’s mother, Elizabeth. That April, after Kim let Lucas in through the bathroom window, he held a pillow over Elizabeth’s head while st
