Schoolgirl, 14, was the ‘driver’ behind sick plot as ‘she and teen lover stabbed mum and daughter to death’, court hears
Elizabeth Edwards and her youngest daughter were found dear at their Spalding home in April this year
A SCHOOLGIRL, 14, was the "driver" behind a "cold and brutal" plot to kill a mother and her 13-year-old daughter in their beds, a court has heard.
Elizabeth Edwards, 49, and her youngest daughter Katie were found dead with a boy and girl - both 14 at the time - accused of stabbing the victims in their throats as they slept.
The court has heard that the pair ate tea cakes and ice cream after the murders, watching the movie 'Twilight' before having sex.
The boy, now 15, has become one of the youngest ever double murderers after admitting two counts of murder at Nottingham Crown Court.
The girl, who is also now 15, has admitted manslaughter but denies murdering church-going dinner lady Ms Edwards and her daughter due to her mental condition.
But, in his closing speech prosecutor Peter Joyce QC said "brutality and contempt oozes from every pore of this girl" and she held the lives of her alleged victims as cheaply as she would "a hamster or a goldfish".
He told the jury: "You know from her police interview just how determined those two children were to take two lives. You know just how callous they were, just how cold they were.
"You know how they planned it and you know in awful detail how they carried it out.
"But you also know this girl was the driver between those two. She told the police: 'We made sure that we were definitely OK with it and he continuously asked me if I still wanted to go through with it and I said yes'.
"Just imagine that scene by the riverbank, the boy asking his girlfriend: 'Do you want to go through with it? Do you really want to do this? Are you sure?'
"It would never ever of happened if she had said no. He was offering not to do it. She could have stopped him.
"She couldn't bring herself to do it so she got him to. He showed her how she should do it, how she should hold the knife.
"[She showed] Shear brutality and utter contempt for her victims. It oozes from every pore of that girl in that interview.
"Afterwards she said she felt 'a bit sad'. A bit sad - as if it was a goldfish or a hamster."
RELATED STORIES
Dr Indranit Chakrabarti had previously told the court that the girl's adjustment disorder prevented her from forming a "rational judgement" and having the ability to plan.
Giving evidence, the child psychiatrist said: "She was thinking under the influence of a recognised medical condition.
"She was unable to make any rational judgement and could not plan, these are symptoms of the adjustment disorder."
Prosecutor Peter Joyce QC said: "She was thinking clearly enough to unwrap from the backpack the shirt with four knives.
"When (the boy) goes into the mother's room she sees he's deviated from the plan because she whispers 'take your shoes off'.
"This is a girl who is thinking about what she has planned and what she is doing."
He told the court the teenage girl was "the one in control".
But Dr Chakrabarti told the court that while the girl had "logical" thoughts, she was not necessarily "rational", saying: "You are focusing on one aspect of the disorder."
He said that the young girl was "unable to cope" because of her medical condition.
Dr Chakrabarti said: "Her condition meant she was not able to comprehend because of the stress that she was under."
The trial, which is in its third day, heard that the young couple carried out the plan "to the letter".
The court had previously heard how the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was "excited" at the prospect of murdering Ms Edwards.
The girl told police “I’d felt like murdering for quite a while” after she and her boyfriend killed the mother and daughter.
She said she and her boyfriend had "a grudge" against dinner lady Elizabeth Edwards, 29, and daughter Katie, 13.
The teenage sweethearts have also been described as being like "a time bomb waiting to go off" after they had become inseparable in the weeks before the murders.
He said the young couple had planned to have a bath afterwards to clean off "the inevitable blood after the killings."
The court previously heard that the plan started as "a joke" that "escalated".
The young girl told police: "He was joking. Then he realised I wasn't joking. Then he said he wasn't joking either and it escalated from there."
The boy and girl, both 15, are accused of hatching the plot to kill church-going Elizabeth Edwards, 49, and youngest daughter Katie from a McDonalds three days before the attack.
The girl told cops in an interview: "He constantly asked me if I wanted to go through with it and I was, like, yes and I asked him and he said yes.
"We decided on the Sunday, but I had felt like murdering for quite a while."
Describing the killings, the girl said: "He gave me his backpack. I opened it slowly because I didn't want to make too much noise.
"I took out a black t-shirt with four knives in it. There were two large knives with black handles, like average kitchen knives.
"He said are you sure you want to do this? I said yes, but then in the end I couldn't do it so he did it."
Churchgoing Elizabeth told the boy to “get off” her and was heard "struggling and gurgling", jurors heard.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how her 13-year-old daughter Katie died moments later after the boy crept into their rooms and repeatedly stabbed them in the throat as they slept.
A jury was told the girl walked in while the boy was on top of Ms Edwards, touched her hand and asked "is she dead?"
She later told detectives she heard the victims try to scream "get off me" after having their vocal chords cut.
The 13-year-old victim mumbled the words: "I can't.." in a "scary voice" which was "all croaky", the court heard.
Jurors heard how the teens planned the killings during regular walks along a riverbank and discussed in detail how they would target the victims' necks.
It is alleged the 15-year-old then suffocated his victims with their own pillows while his female accomplice listened to them "struggling and gurgling" at around midnight on April 13.
A court heard the couple planned to kill themselves with pills and the girl left a suicide note which read: "F*** you, world. I want to be cremated and want our ashes scattered at our special place".
The trial continues.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368