Ammanford school stabbing trial collapses as ‘compromised’ juror dismissed | UK News

A jury hearing the trial of a girl accused of stabbing two teachers and a fellow pupil at a school in south Wales has been dismissed because of “a major irregularity”.

The girl, then 13, had accepted that she had taken a bladed fishing multi-tool to her school and stabbed the two adults and the student, but denied trying to kill them.

Judge Paul Thomas KC dismissed the jury on Wednesday, a day after they were sent out to consider their verdicts.

The judge said: “There has been a major irregularity in the jury which, as we all agree, has irretrievably impaired our ability to consider this matter. “It is with the utmost reluctance that I will have to dismiss this jury.”

The judge said the move was undesirable and the girl, now 14, would be back in court next year. A new trial is scheduled for January 27, 2025.

Swansea Crown Court heard the attacks took place in April during morning break at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, when one of the adults, deputy headteacher Fiona Elias, told the girl she was not allowed in the hall where she was going wanted to chat with friends.

Prosecutors alleged the girl told Elias, “I’m going to kill you. “I’m going to fucking kill you,” and started stabbing her. A second teacher, Liz Hopkin, tried to help her colleague but was stabbed in the neck and taken to hospital by rescue helicopter.

Both teachers told police they believed they were being killed.

The teenager then allegedly let out a scream described in court as “like something out of a horror movie” and told a classmate: “I’m going to f***ing kill you, you bitch” before stabbing her.

On the witness stand, the girl told the court that she was seen as a “troubled” child and that her memory of the attacks was hazy, but repeatedly insisted that she had no intention of killing the three victims. She admitted being injured but denied trying to kill the three.

Asked how remembering the attacks felt now, she said: “It doesn’t feel like I did it.” She felt “terrible, guilty” and added: “I would do anything to return.”