Sentencing of rejected boy who stabbed girl 'appalling'

The parents of girls who were killed by their ex-boyfriends have described the sentencing of a teenager - who stabbed a girl multiple times because she did not want to date him - as "appalling" and "disappointing".

The 14-year-old boy stabbed the girl, also 14, multiple times with a 6in kitchen knife in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in March - and received a three-year restraining order on Monday.

Carole Gould and Nick Gazzard, whose daughters were fatally attacked by their ex-partners, said the non-custodial sentence highlighted the importance of better education and law changes around domestic abuse and coercive control.

The Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

The girl, who survived the attack, had told the court in a victim impact statement: "I'm scared and nervous anywhere that I go.

"Even if someone puts their hand up next to me I flinch as I don't know what they are about to do to me."

The boy, from Wiltshire, admitted wounding with intent, inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent and possession of a bladed article in a public place, and was also handed a one-year referral order at Gloucester Crown Court during Monday's sentencing.

Det Supt Ian Fletcher, of Gloucestershire Police, likened the attack to the award-winning TV drama Adolescence, in which a teenager stabs his female classmate.

He described the boy as "obsessed".

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Carole's daughter Ellie, a 17-year-old student from Calne, Wiltshire, was murdered at her home by her ex-boyfriend Thomas Griffiths on 3 May, 2019.

Griffiths, who was aged 17 at the time, strangled and stabbed Ellie multiple times in the neck with a kitchen knife after she ended their three-month relationship.

He admitted murder and was jailed for a minimum of 12 and a half years in November 2019.

Carole told the BBC she found the non-custodial sentence in the Gloucester stabbing case "misogynistic".

Carole said: "I was absolutely appalled by the sentencing. It doesn't reflect the seriousness of the crime.

"The sentence says 'we're not going to take this seriously'. It's totally wrong.

"We know there's an escalation and pattern in this behaviour and, as they move onto another partner and another partner, it leads to murder."

Carole, alongside Somerset mum Julie Devey - whose daughter was also killed by her ex-boyfriend - have campaigned for proposals for tougher sentencing for domestic killers.

"We need societal change where young men and boys understand that this coercive controlling behaviour is not acceptable in society," Carole said.

"Everyone has a right to end a relationship if it's not right for them.

"We cannot go through society just dismissing these harms."

She said of the stabbing victim in Gloucester: "This poor girl is going to be living with this for the rest of her life, she has a life-sentence."

Carole said the education of violence against women and girls in schools needed "to be harder hitting".

She added it needed to be continued up to the age of 18 across all educational settings.

The father of murder victim, Hollie Gazzard, who was 20 when she was repeatedly knifed to death by Asher Maslin, then 22, in 2014 when she ended their relationship, said he was "very disappointed in terms of the sentence that was delivered" in the latest Gloucester case.

Maslin admitted murdering Hollie at the hairdressers where she worked, also in Gloucester, and was jailed for life.

Hollie was stabbed 14 times in front of horrified customers as she was finishing her shift at the Fringe Benefits and La Bella Beauty salon.

Speaking to BBC Radio Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, her father Nick said of the latest Gloucester stabbing: "This is a case of rejection whereby he wouldn't take no for an answer. Very much the same in Hollie's case.

"And what we have to do, through rehabilitation and education, is to get people to understand no means no, and individuals have a right to say no.

"We've got to get around these coercive controlling behaviours we see in society, and really try and change individuals' attitudes towards being rejected."

Nick set up the Hollie Gazzard Trust following his daughter's death and, as part of the work, teaches groups of young boys in schools about dealing with rejection.

Gloucestershire Police's Dept Ch Con Katy Barrow-Grint, who specialises in research into violence against women and girls, told BBC Points West on Monday similar abuse was "widespread".

"Our young children are learning, at much younger ages, about harm and committing it in person against their peers," she said.

"The legislation will currently say domestic abuse occurs in those aged 16 or over.

"I think there's a gap.

"We don't quite understand nationally what the prevalence is of teenage relationship abuse, or adolescence domestic abuse."

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