Girl, 13, ‘deliberate and researched’ homicide of girl discovered stabbed to dying with greater than 140 knife wounds

A 13-year-old girl stabbed a woman more than 140 times in a ‘premeditated’ murder, before texting friends to say she ‘wouldn’t be in school for a while’, a court has heard.

The body of Marta Bednarczyk was found burnt in a fire at a terraced property in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, in March.

But a post-mortem examination found the 43-year-old had suffered horrific injuries to her face, neck and back, inflicted by at least two weapons – likely killing her before the fire started.

Prosecutors said her alleged killer, who initially blamed a third party for the killing, was found nearby with cuts to her hands and taken to hospital – where she was seen smiling by a police officer and a nurse.

Lincoln Crown Court, sitting at the city’s magistrates’ court, heard the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accepted unlawfully killing Ms Bednarczyk, but denies murder, claiming diminished responsibility.

It is alleged she ‘planned and researched’ the attack for weeks beforehand, including looking online at gory videos of people being killed and researching the sentence ‘for a 13-year-old convicted of murder.’

Opening the case for the prosecution, Samuel Skinner KC said it ‘may never be known’ why Ms Bednarczyk died

Although he recognised that the jurors ‘may have sympathy’ with the girl because of her young age, he added: ‘Marta was not armed with a knife. Marta did not deserve to be murdered.

‘This is about the girl making a deliberate decision to arm herself with knives, and a deliberate decision to stab her victim repeatedly.’

The court heard emergency services rushed to the address in the early hours of March 10 following a 999 call where they saw a fire burning in the downstairs living room.

Police officers forced their way in and found Ms Bednarczyk on the floor, lying next to a sofa that she had been using as a bed.

Mr Skinner said: ‘There was thick smoke filling the room, and it was plain Marta had been using the living room as a bedroom. She was laying on the sofa underneath a duvet before she was attacked that night.

‘Firemen pulled her from the living room into the hallway. They could see Marta had received many stab wounds.

‘Other people put out the fire and paramedics started to treat Marta’s injuries, but they realised she was dead.’

Mr Skinner said the girl was found near to the property with blood on both her face and clothing, as well as cuts to her hands. She was said to have blamed a third party for the killing.

The teenager was taken to hospital, where she was seen smiling by a police officer and a nurse and did not appear to be ‘confused or responding to voices telling her what to do’, the court heard.

Mr Skinner added that the girl asked for her mobile phone to be returned to her, and started sending text messages to her friends ‘about what she said had happened’.

He said: ‘She told those friends she probably would not be in school for a while.

‘You may think when you see the footage she plainly thought she was getting away with murder.’

Mr Skinner said the girl was ‘bright and articulate, and did well at school’, but an examination of her electronic devices showed she had ‘been thinking about killing for weeks beforehand, and researched online’.

He told the jury: ‘Whatever she might say now, we say this killing was premeditated.’

Mr Skinner said that as she was arrested, the girl ‘did not say anything relevant about what had happened or claim to be unwell’, but ‘kept quiet, and kept thinking’.

The court heard Marta’s body was examined by a Home Office pathologist, who described her as being killed by a ‘combination of stab wounds in the face, neck and back’.

Mr Skinner said she had been stabbed more than 100 times, and more than one knife was used in the attack.

In total, the court heard there were at least 143 ‘sharp force injuries’, including 65 to the head and neck, seven in the front of the torso, 33 in the back, 10 to the arms, and 18 to the hands and wrists.

Mr Skinner said the wounds included one that entered the victim’s brain, and two that pierced her lungs.

He told the hearing: ‘The pathologist said the force needed to inflict the injury to Marta’s brain with the knife was ‘severe’.

‘Many took place when Marta was trying to protect herself from the attack, trying to grab the blade and stop herself from being stabbed again.’

Referring to what might have led to the death of Ms Bednarczyk, Mr Skinner added: ‘The sad truth is we may never know – but we don’t need to know – what brought about this situation.

‘Difficult as it may be to accept, this killing is nothing to do with her (the girl’s) mental health – as much as we all might want the comfort of seeking to say to ourselves that mental health and diminished responsibility explains what she did.

‘Why do I say this? Because of the evidence of her premeditation – I have told you about the research she was doing – because of the evidence of her lies, and because of the evidence of respected and experienced medical professionals who say she did not have an abnormality of mental function which gives rise to the defence of diminished responsibility.

‘She is yet to give a full account of what happened in that room, and you may hear that what she has said happened has changed. You will have to look carefully at her explanation.

‘In truth, this issue of diminished responsibility is likely to be the main focus of your attention in this trial because we, the prosecution, do not accept she has the benefit of the defence of diminished responsibility.

‘We say we will make you sure this was murder, because she (the girl) intended to cause her really serious harm.

‘We say it is murder because she planned the killing, and we say it is murder because she lied about what she did.

‘And we say it is murder because there are genuine specialists in this field of psychiatry and psychology with real world hospital experience that say her actions were not caused by her poor mental health.’

Because of the girl’s age, she is sat on the back row of the court benches accompanied by an intermediary and her social worker instead of in the glass-panelled dock.

Neither judge Mrs Justice Tipples nor any of the barristers in the case are wearing gowns or wigs, and jurors have been told the sitting hours will mirror those of a school day.

The trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks, continues.