Girl sent to psychiatric unit after parent attack

A ST NEOTS schoolgirl who filmed herself as she attacked her parents has been sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The girl, who was 15-years-old at the time of the incident, was prosecuted after she tried to strangle her mother and stab her father.

On Friday the girl, now 17, appeared at Cambridge Crown Court for sentencing following a trial which took place in February of this year.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth ordered that the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, receive treatment in a psychiatric unit for teenagers until well enough to be released.

The teenager had been found guilty of attempting to wound her father with intent and trying to choke, suffocate or strangle her mother.

She was cleared of attempting to murder her parents, charges she had denied.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports and last week Judge Hawkesworth said he was satisfied that at the time of her crimes the girl was suffering from an illness which she was unable to control.

The attacks took place in February 2007 following an argument between the girl and her father, a jury was told earlier this year.

The girl filmed herself as she first planned and then attacked her parents at the family home.

She set up a video camera before putting a dressing gown belt round her mother's neck and stabbing her father in the shoulder with scissors as he came to his wife's aid.

During the trail the teenager told the court that she had been trying to make the voice in her head go away by pretending to hurt her parents.

She told the jury: "I did not want to hurt them. I was going to pretend so that there would be inquiries into why and what was going on, and the voice would finally get addressed properly.

"I never intended to hurt them. I needed them to see something was wrong and accept it."

Both parents also told the court that they had been unhurt during the incident.