The baby faced killers who became the UK’s youngest

23/07/2023

Despite it being the most serious crime ^[1] the UK’s courts have played host to many who have committed the most evil and unspeakable act of killing another person.

For many families, their loved ones have been ripped from them in an act of cruelty, with the only silver lining being that their murderers could be subject to conditions so strict that they could spend the rest of their years behind bars.

It might be hard to believe but even children are capable of taking another’s life – and there have been many in the UK who have stood in front of a judge as a killer,^[2] waiting to learn their fate.

Despite their baby faces, the youths in this list have gone on to kill – some more than one person. A few of them have even committed the most evil act here, in Yorkshire. Khayri Mclean’s murderers ^[3] were both under 18 when they murdered the Huddersfield schoolboy and Jack Simpson was unmasked as the 16-year-old who claimed the lives of three men in a horrific collision on the M606.

Here is a life of some of the UK’s youngest killers.

Jakele Pusey and Jovani Harriott

Khayri Mclean (centre), was murdered by Jakele Pusey- (right) and Jovani Harriott (left) (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Pusey, 15, and 17-year-old Harriott were unmasked earlier this year as the teenagers who murdered Huddersfield schoolboy Khayri Mclean in a cold-blooded knife attack.

The two teenagers lay in wait for the 15-year-old as he walked home from school before attacking him. Jakele was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years, and Harriott for a minimum term of 18 years.

A court heard Pusey shouted “Yo Khayri” before delivering the fatal blow to his chest. Harriott was seen on CCTV “twisting in the air” before lunging at Khayri with a large knife and stabbing him in the leg. Both teenagers ran from the scene and changed their clothes while Khayri collapsed and received medical attention. He was taken to hospital but tragically died.

It was said the attack was “carefully planned.”

Read the full story here.^[4]

Jack Simpson

Jack Simpson (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

16-year-old Simpson was jailed last year after he took the lives of taxi driver Sohail Ali, his passenger Simon McHugh and his own friend Kyle Leadbeater in a crash on the M606.

Simpson was driving a stolen Ford transit van when he was seen by a police constable. A chase ensued and Simpson carried out an appalling series of driving, driving in excess of 70mph in 30mph areas and driving around roundabouts the wrong way.

The van eventually collided with Mr Ali’s taxi on the M606 and both he and Mr McHugh died at the scene. Mr Leadbeater died approximately six hours later in hospital.

Simpson was jailed for six years.

Read the full story here.^[5]

Will Cornick

15-year-old Cornick stabbed teacher Ann Maguire seven times as she taught a class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in April 2014. The teenager admitted to psychiatrists he planned to murder the teacher as he had a “deep seated grudge” against her.

Cornick stabbed Ms Maguire seven times in the back before another teacher barricaded her in a room from him while he returned to the classroom and said “Good times.”

He was sentenced to a minimum term of 20 years.

Sharon Carr

Sharon Carr (Image: PA)

Carr was just 12 when she murdered 18-year-old hairdresser Katie Rackliff and then bragged about it in her diary.

Katie was stabbed and murdered as she walked home from a nightclub in Camberley, London. Her body was taken by Carr and some associates and driven to Farnborough where she was dragged along a road and dumped by a cemetery wall. Her murder was thought to be sexually motivated and committed by a fully grown male.

HullLive reports ^[6] that Carr had a “sadistic” history for violence which included the decapitation of a dog with a spade. She was not caught for Katie’s murder for three-and-a-half-years when she was locked up for stabbing a 13-year-old girl. Her diaries were seized and one chilling entry read: “I wish I could kill you again. I promise I would make you suffer more. Your terrified screams turn me on.”

She also wrote: “I swear I was born to be a murderer.”

Carr was known as “The Devil’s Daughter” and was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years. She still remains in custody.

James Fairweather

Teenager Fairweather murdered two strangers and planned to kill 15 more. He was convicted of stabbing 22-year-old James Attfield 102 times in March 20114 before stabbing to death student Nahid Almanea three months later.

Fairweather – who was obsessed with the Yorkshire Ripper – told a teacher he wanted to be a murderer and told officers he “went out looking for a sacrifice” before killing his first victim. It is said he had an interest in violent pornography and was fascinated with serial killers, Nazis and cannabalism.

Craig Mulligan

Craig Mulligan (Image: South Wales Police/PA Wire)

Mulligan was just 13 when he killed five-year-old Logan Mwangi alongside his dad John Cole and Logan’s mum Angharad Williamson. It was revealed that Mulligan was once described as “pure evil” by foster carers who looked after him weeks before Logan’s death.

He also had a history of “cruel” attacks on young children, vulnerable adults and small animals and was trained in martial arts.

Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore, South Wales, in July 2021 with injuries similar to those from a high-speed car crash. Mulligan was sentenced to life detention with a minimum term of 15 years.

Aaron Campbell

Aaron Campbell (Image: Police Scotland/PA Wire)

Sick Campbell snatched six-year-old Alesha McPhail from her bed before raping and murdering her in woodland on the Isle of Bute in Scotland in 2018.

The 16-year-old was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 27 years in custody. A court heard Alesha had suffered 117 separate injuries in what was described as some of the “wickedest, most evil crimes.”

Danny and Ricky Preddie

Danny Preddie [left] and his brother Ricky

Danny Preddie, 13, and his brother Ricky, 12, attacked ten-year-old Damilola Taylor as he walked home from Peckham library in London.

Damilola suffered a gash to his left thigh from a broken bottle and bled to death in a stairwell. The brothers were part of the Young Peckham Boys gang which had terrorised the streets of South London.

The brothers were sentenced to eight years in youth detention for manslaughter. It took three trials and nearly six years for them to face justice.

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson (Image: PA Wire)

In one of the UK’s most recognised cases where children have killed, ten-year-olds Venables and Thompson abducted todler James Bulger from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside in 1993.

Two-year-old James was taken to a disused railway line and tortured and killed. His murderers kicked and stomped on him, threw bricks and stones and dropped a 10kg iron plate on him. James suffered a total of 42 injuries before he was left on the railway track to die.

The case created a national outrage and Venables and Thompson were both handed life sentences and remained in custody until June 2001 when the Parole Board recommended their release on a lifelong licence. They were released with new identities. Venables has since spent time in and out of prison – for breaching his parole and possessing child sexual abuse images.

The case prompted widespread debate on how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.

Mary Bell

Ten-year-old Mary Bell strangled two little boys to death in Newcaslte in 1968. She strangled four-year-old Martin Brown in an upstairs bedroom of a derelict house. His body was found by three children lying on his back with his arms stretched above his head.

After the killing, Mary and a friend broke into and vandalised a nursery where she left a note claiming responsibility for the crime but police dismissed it as a prank. Se went on to kill three-year-old Bryan Howe, whose body was discovered between two large concrete blocks. He had suffered puncture wounds and an attempt to carve an M had been made on his stomach.

When she was charged, Mary replied: “That’s alright by me.” She was sentenced to life in detention after being found guilty of manslaughter by diminished responsibility. She was released in 1980 and given a new identity. Her right to anonymity was granted to her daughter following her birth – initially until she was 18 but Bell won a High Court battle in 2003 to have her own anonymity and her daughter’s extended for life.

This was later updated to include her granddaughter.

Connor Doran, Brandon Doran and Simon Evans

Connor Doran [left], Brandon Doran [middle] and Simon Evans

Homeless man Kevin Bennett was set upon by the three teenage bots as he slept outside of a supermarket in Liverpool. Connor Doran, 17, said to his friend Evans, 14, “I bet you haven’t got it in you to do him in.”

The attack in 2012 by Doran, his brother Brandon, 14, and Evans led to Mr Burnett’s death six days later.

Connor Doran, described as the leader of the pack, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison.

His brother Brandon was given a six-year sentence and Evans was handed an eight year term behind bars.

Daniel Bartlam

Bartlam was just 14 when he battered his mum to death with a hammer on Easter Monday in 2011.

He sickeningly went on to set mum Jacqueline’s body on fire. He was said to have a fascination with soaps and re-enacted a similar killing by Coronation Street killer John Stape. Bartlam wrote a script about a boy named Daniel who bludgeoned his mother Jackie to death just four days before carrying out the brutal murder.

He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 16 years.

Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham

Lucas Markham and Kim Edwards (Image: Linconshire Police /PA Wire)

“Twilight killers Edwards and Markham were just 14 when they killed her mum Elizabeth and sister Katie.

Markham stabbed Elizabeth in the neck before smothering her with a pillow and then killed a sleeping Katie, claiming he had no choice but to end the 13-year-old’s life because he feared she would tell the police what he had done.

The couple then had sex, a bath and watched the Twilight film. They were found guilty of murder and handed life sentences with minimum terms of 17-and-a-half-years.

References

^{^} most serious crime (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
^{^} stood in front of a judge as a killer, (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
^{^} Khayri Mclean’s murderers (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
^{^} Read the full story here. (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
^{^} Read the full story here. (www.examinerlive.co.uk)
^{^} HullLive reports (www.hulldailymail.co.uk)