Hampshire schoolgirl accused of stabbing '˜motivated' by Batman villain The Joker, jury told

Winchester Crown Court has heard that the teenager was obsessed by serial killers and school shootings and had plotted to kill her mother and brother in the months before the attack on April 25.

James Newton-Price QC, prosecuting, has told the jury the defendant lured her 15-year-old friend to a quiet area at their Hampshire school, which cannot be named, with the promise of giving her a present, before stabbing her with a kitchen knife, causing a minor wound.

Mr Newton-Price said the defendant targeted the friend out of revenge for tampering with her Instagram and Tumblr social media profiles.

Giving evidence by videolink, a friend of the defendant said she had planned a school shooting for November this year but later abandoned it and burnt the journal in which she had written the plan.

The friend said: ‘After she said that, she started to plan killing her mother and her youngest brother. I was unaware this could be anything serious. It was in quite a joking manner.’

The court was read a message sent by the defendant which said: ‘It’s either this or a school shooting but I want to do it after I get off my braces and before the science GCSEs.’

The trial has heard that on the day the defendant stabbed her friend, she cut her face on either side of the mouth.

The friend said the defendant had talked about cutting her face like Heath Ledger’s Joker from Batman film The Dark Knight.

She said: ‘She had referred to cutting her face like The Joker scars, one cut either side of her mouth, from Batman.’

She added that the defendant sent her a message saying she did not care ‘if they blamed it on The Joker or Columbine, they didn’t inspire me, they motivated me’.

The friend said the defendant sent her a Snapchat photo of her face wounds before the attack and turned up at school wearing a bandana and showed her the minor scars.

She added that the defendant told her that morning she was going to attack the other friend, but she did not believe she would carry it out.

The witness added that she saw the defendant walk off ‘giggling’ with the victim.

The friend also said the defendant sent her a message saying: ‘If the plan does fail I will say the voices in my head made me do it.’

Mr Newton-Price has told the jury the defendant told police after her arrest that she had been ‘heavily influenced’ by a voice in her head.

The defendant, who is now 15, denies charges of attempted murder and wounding with intent.

She has pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and possession of a bladed article on school premises.

(Proceeding)