A teenager has been acquitted of the murder and manslaughter of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared by a jury of both charges at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday.
Aria died from a fatal stab wound to her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on 15 December last year.
After the incident, the boy left her home, later telling a group of children at a nearby railway station that her death was an “accident”.
He later told the jury at Bristol Crown Court that he had picked up a knife from the kitchen of Aria’s home and went into the lounge, where she was sitting on the sofa, to “scare” her.
The boy demonstrated moving the knife in a ninja-style way before jabbing it towards Aria as if he was fencing. He said the knife accidentally went into Aria, causing the fatal injury.
Jurors returned the verdicts of not guilty to both charges. After they were returned, several members of the public gallery left the court room quietly.
During the trial, the boy said he had wanted to “scare” Aria and picked up the knife, which had a 21cm blade, from near the kitchen sink before going into the lounge.
He told the jury: “Aria stood up and I was waving around the knife.
“Then at some point I decided that I was going to try to make her flinch and scare her, to get a reaction.
“I leaned forward, acted like I was fencing.”
The defendant said Aria had been in front of him at the time.
“She had almost taken a step forward but without taking a step forward because before she could, it happened,” he said.
“I don’t know what she was doing.
“The knife went into her. Then I pulled it out. I didn’t know what to do. She put her hand to her chest.”
The boy said Aria then fell to the floor on her front.
“I thought she had died,” he told the court.
“I got scared, I panicked. So I ran to the kitchen with the knife and I put it back into the sink.”
He did not check on Aria after she was injured, did not raise the alarm with neighbours or ring for an ambulance.
The boy walked to Worle railway station, where he told a group of children that he had killed Aria accidentally.
His mobile phone had been previously been confiscated by his mother and he borrowed the phone of a boy at the station.
He then searched for “what happens if you kill…”.
A girl at the train station rang police on 999 to report what the boy had said and police quickly attended.
The boy ran onto a train, which police stopped from departing the station. He was then arrested.
When asked how he was feeling about what happened at that time, the boy replied: “I felt horrible”.
Home Office pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery found Aria died from a single stab wound, which went through her heart.
Dr Jeffery told the jury that Aria would have died “very swiftly” from the injury, which was between 7.5 and 8cm deep.
Aria attended school on the day of her death and was collected from an after-school dance class by her mother, Tori Hull, at about 4.30pm.
They went shopping for mini-pizzas and toppings, which they made together. Ms Hull left for an evening work shift shortly after, with Aria watching YouTube videos on the television.
Family friend Ollie Sheppard, who was staying temporarily at the house, returned there after work at about 6pm.
He found Aria on the floor of the living room and rang 999, with police and paramedics arriving a short time later.
Tragically, Aria could not be saved and was pronounced dead at 6.58pm.
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