Ellie Gould: teen jailed for murdering 17-year-old girlfriend
Thomas Griffith stabbed his girlfriend 13 occasions, and attempted to protect his monitors by throwing proof and texting the girl mobile.
By Dan Whitehead, reports correspondent and Chris Robertson, news reporter
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An adolescent who stabbed his 17-year-old gf to dying in a «brutal» and «horrific» kill has become jailed for lifetime with at least phase of 12 age and six months.
Thomas Griffiths, 18, acknowledge he previously murdered Ellie Gould at the woman family home in Calne, Wiltshire on 3 might 2019 – a single day after she concluded their relationship.
Griffiths strangled Ellie and stabbed the girl inside the throat 13 period, before putting the knife within her hand in an attempt to make the injuries hunt self-inflicted.
Griffiths – who had been 17 at the time of the killing – attemptedto mask his measures by throwing proof and texting Ellie’s mobile, despite knowing she got dead, Bristol Crown courtroom read.
Ellie – a passionate pony driver – was a student in the lady first year of sixth form along with aspirations of joining the mounted authorities.
In sentencing, Mr Justice Garnham said: «For a few period, you were date and gf. On about May 2, she had decided to conclude that partnership.
«what counts is the fact that she got labeled as a halt for the commitment as she was completely entitled to create. Your state you’re disappointed by that.
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«within my view, you were a lot more than angry.»
Mr Garnham added that he decided not to take Griffiths’ accounts of occasions your pair had contended during a report program, saying: «both you and you by yourself know exactly what happened that day.
«But what is obvious usually eventually, you add your hands around Ellie’s neck and made an effort to throttle the girl.»
«She experimented with seriously to combat right back, scraping at your throat in the act. You probably did n’t have the feeling, or even the decency, to quit. Instead, you found a kitchen blade.
«Then you performed the quintessential terrible combat about this defenceless female, continually stabbing their on the face and neck.
«The pain and terror she need endured within her final times, as your stressful knife approach continuous, is beyond imagining.
«unable to address that which you got complete, then you attempted to hide this dreadful criminal activity.
«First, and a lot of chillingly, you remaining Ellie on to the ground making use of blade stuck inside her throat and her left hand round the handle regarding the knife.
«We have no doubt which you arranged the scene to ensure that it could may actually those people that receive Ellie that she have been slain, not by someone else, but rather by her very own hand or in some https://datingreviewer.net/escort/palm-bay/ terrible accident.»
The judge mentioned that Ellie’s parent got at first considered that the wounds was basically self-inflicted.
«There is certainly you can forget terrible world for mother to consider than what confronted Ellie’s dad when he emerged residence that time from operate.
Speaking to Griffiths, he put: «the end result of one’s steps has not merely been to snuff out of the lifetime of this vibrant, smart, gifted and vivacious young woman together with her lifetime before the lady, additionally to wreak unhappiness and heartbreak on her behalf family and friends.»
Previously, in a personal report into the legal, Ms Gould’s mama asserted that no mother should ever before must keep their particular dead child’s «cooler fingers» as she performed.
The statement furthermore mentioned that Ms Gould had «welcomed the defendant within their residence, sat him all over dinning table
celebrated a seventeenth birthday celebration with your much less than 90 days later on noticed that he got murdered her girl.»
She extra your loss of the woman daughter starred constantly on her behalf notice and Mr Gould mentioned their daughter’s death remaining your experience «helpless, vacant and sour».
In minimization, Sasha Wass QC, representing the defendant, mentioned that Griffiths is an «exceptional» student, and that he had competed in state and intercontinental sporting tournaments.
She extra that Griffiths was actually «presented with several stressed life occasions,» which included group conditions and exam concerns.
In a page for the judge, the 18-year-old apologised for his steps, claiming: «All I believe was guilt for Ellie along with her family members when I got such an unique girl and cousin from all of them.»
Griffiths bowed their head as their phrase had been passed away.