Judge offered to pay a teenager’s court fine after she stabbed a pervert who sexually abused her as a child
Girl, 15, spared jail after knifing man who walked free after assaulting her when she was eight
A JUDGE has offered to pay a 15-year-old girl’s court fine after hearing she had stabbed a paedophile who abused her as a child.
The teen knifed the 56-year-old man who sexually assaulted her when she was eight-years-old, plunging a blade through his chest.
She carried out the attack on her abuser’s doorstep last year – six years after he walked away from court for assaulting her as a child.
The teenager felt let down by the justice system when he harassed and bullied her after walking free from court, it was said.
Sparing her jail at Bradford Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC refused to impose a mandatory victim surcharge.
And he told her: “If anyone tries to force you, I will pay it myself.”
The girl was 14 when she armed herself with a knife and stabbed her tormentor who had destroyed her life, the court heard.
Judge Durham Hall told the schoolgirl: “It would be a disgrace to send a survivor like you to prison.”
The girl - who cannot be identified – took a kitchen knife and went round to the man’s home in Bradford, West Yorks, in November.
She told him: “I am going to kill you,” before plunging the blade into him in front of his two young children.
The man – whose artery supplying blood away from his heart had been cut - was saved by paramedics and surgeons. He was in intensive care and needed a blood transfusion.
After stabbing her abuser, the girl hugged her aunt, said: “Tell my mum I love her,” and handed herself in at Trafalgar House Police station, in Bradford city centre.
She said: “I’ve killed someone,” and immediately confessed to what she had done.
The teenager was originally charged with attempted murder but the Crown accepted her plea of guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Miss Gilmore said the girl had been “entirely destroyed” when her abuser was not jailed for sexually assaulting her and inciting her to engage in sexual activity.
He was given a community order after she had to give evidence at his trial because he denied the offences.
Afterwards, she was paranoid he was “going to get her.”
The girl was later excluded from school for poor behaviour. She feared she would never get a husband and she lived her life in a bad dream, the court heard.
Her victim had been left in constant pain from the stab wound. He was permanently scarred and his children had been affected.
Elyas Patel, the girl’s barrister, said: “Rightly or wrongly, this 15-year-old felt that the justice system had let her down.
“With Your Honour at the wheel, the justice system will not fail her today.”
Mr Patel went on: “She was left deeply troubled and scarred. She acted in a few moments of despair and desperation.
“This is an exceptional case which requires an exceptional course.
“This deeply troubled and damaged child, bedevilled by low self-esteem, is crying out for help.”
Judge Durham Hall sentenced the girl to a two year Youth Rehabilitation Order with supervision.
He told her: “You stabbed him in the region of his heart. Mercifully, you did not kill him.
“He was saved by excellent medical intervention and has made a pretty full recovery.”
The judge continued: “Why did you stab this man? Because when you were eight in 2009 he committed serious sexual offences against you.
“He was treated by the courts, with hindsight, somewhat leniently but things have changed. Now there is condign punishment in cases of this nature, in accordance with the guidelines.”