Older teenager '˜laughed and said she was bored' after Angela Wrightson attack, court told

The older of two teenage girls accused of murdering a frail and vulnerable woman in her Hartlepool home laughed and said she was '˜bored' after launching a frenzied attacks on her victim, her co-accused told police.
Angela WrightsonAngela Wrightson
Angela Wrightson

Two girls aged 14 and 15 are standing trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of the murder of 39-year-old Angela Wrightson at her home in Stephen Street, Hartlepool, in December 2014.

Both defendants deny the charge.

Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.
Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.

Jurors have today heard the transcript of three police interviews conducted with the younger of the two defendants in which he insisted she played no part in Ms Wrightson’s death.

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She said during the interview that her co-accused had hurled a table at Ms Wrightson and kicked her several times in the head - ignoring her pleas to halt the savage attack.

In the statement, which was read out in court, she said: “I did not in anyway assault Angela.

“I tried to prevent (the older girl), but could not.

Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.
Flowers left outside the Stephen Street home of murder victim Angela Wrightson.

“When I left the property, to the best of my knowledge, Angela was alive.”

During her interview, she said a row had broken out between Angela and the older girl after they visited her home.

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The older girl, she told police, had then ‘whacked’ a table over Angela’s head and kicked her.

The defendant said she told the older girl to ‘behave’ as Angela’s head was bleeding.

In her account of the evening, she said Angela had gone to the kitchen to get a knife after the attack began but was again kicked in the head by the older girl.

The older girl is then said to have pushed Ms Wrightson to the ground, were she hit her head on a mantlepiece.

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She is then alleged to have told her friend she wanted to leave the house as she was ‘bored’.

At this point, the younger girl told police she told her co-accused: “I said to her ‘would you like it if someone did that to you’.

“She laughed and I told her it was not a laughing matter.”

She said she got blood on her jeans from trying to help Angela get up off the floor.

The younger girl said she later rang police to get a lift home from the street and admitted she ‘didn’t know how’ poloice hadn’t noticed blood on her and the older girl’s clothing when they got in the police van.

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Jurors also heard from toxicologist Andrew Love in a statement read out in court.

Dr Love stated that Ms Wrightson was ‘very intoxicated’ at the time of the incident - with her blood alcohol level equivalent to being more than four times over the drink-drive limit.

The level of alcohol in her blood was at a potentially fatal level.

Ms Wrightson was an alcoholic and weighed just six-and-a-half stone at the time of her death.