A schoolgirl who has been found guilty of attempted murder had scribbled a series of disturbing messages in a notebook prior to the attack, it has been revealed. In April last year, Amman Valley school in Wales was forced into a lockdown when the "out of control" girl, aged 13 at the time, stabbed teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, and a female pupil. The girl, who is now 14, pleaded guilty to charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article on a school premises, but denied attempted murder.
During the week-long trial, the court heard that she had written disturbing entries into a notebook, including phrases like "crime of a lifetime", wanting to do "something humans are not supposed to do", and "why do I want to kill others as much as I want to kill myself?". The court was further told the girl was found with a knife in her school bag back in September 2023 by assistant head Mrs Fiona Elias - and was excluded. Her father won a plea for her to be allowed back on the condition that he would check her bag everyday, but she began carrying his multi-tool in her trousers instead.
The young student claimed that at the time she was being bullied "three or four" times a week at the Ammanford school , causing her to feel "anxious and scared all the time". The girl's father said he didn't check her bag on the morning of the attack because the teenager had left the house before he woke up. He said he previously warned staff that "if you don't stop the bullying something is going to go bad". He alleged: "They completely ignored it and brushed it off by the looks of it.".
Defending his dauther, the dad told the Times that while the teen was "responsible for her actions [...] unfortunately her actions have some merit". "When you have somebody of authority who is pushing down on you and they are not listening and you are getting constantly bullied, everyone is going to have a breaking point and she got to her breaking point I believe," he said. "At home, prior to it all happening, I could see she was getting depressed and she was self-harming. This was a sign. She contemplated suicide for a little bit because the bullying was extreme but instead of going that way about it she went the other way and lashed out.".
According to her father, the girl was being kicked, punched, and slapped by bullies at the school, and felt she was being unfairly "pulled up" for detention. During questioning, the teen admitted that she hated Mrs Elias but said she did not want to kill anyone. The jury of seven men and five women returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all three counts following three hours of deliberation at Swansea Crown Court. The girl is due to be sentenced in April.
