Jail for two women who stabbed 13-year-old boy

Two lesbian lovers who stabbed a 13-year-old boy more than 20 times during a savage attack were jailed today for the attempted murder of the teenager.

At Lewes Crown Court, Lorraine Large, 22, was jailed for nine years while co-defendant Gemma McGarvie, 18, was sentenced to seven years' detention at a young offenders' institution.

Passing sentence, Judge Richard Brown told the pair they had committed a "cowardly and vicious attack" on a defenceless child as he had cried for his mother. For this, he said, they must both be severely punished.

He said: "You both armed yourselves with knives and you set about ... (the victim) in the most horrendous manner. ... (The victim) had done absolutely nothing to provoke the attack on him. He was barely conscious.

"Once you had begun your cowardly and vicious attack, you continued until you reached the point where as far as you were concerned, he was dead."

"Of course you must both be severely punished for this offence of attempted murder."

The jury had heard during the four-week trial that ended in their conviction in December last year that Large, of Foxes Croft, Barnham, and McGarvie, of South Terrace, Littlehampton, both in West Sussex, dragged the boy to a public green where they stabbed him with a craft knife and a seven-inch carving knife before leaving him for dead.

Richard Anelay QC, prosecuting, had said the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been to a party at McGarvie's flat on December 15, 2000, but he had angered the pair by being sick after drinking cider.

Witnesses told the jury they saw the defendants hit the boy before noticing McGarvie pick up a red-handled craft knife and Large pick up a carving knife.

They then took him to a nearby green, where they attacked him, the trial, also at Lewes Crown Court, had heard.

The boy, who is now 14, suffered 23 stab wounds to his chest, back and legs, and his throat had been slit.

Paramedics found him near a park bench in a pool of blood.

During the trial, Large and McGarvie had blamed each other for the attack.

McGarvie said Large dragged the boy out of the flat then attacked him with the knife "while grinning like a Cheshire cat".

After they returned to the flat Large had said she had to wash her hands because she had "just touched a dirty nigger", McGarvie said.

But Large accused McGarvie of launching the attack, telling the jury that after she had said: "The little bastard's still breathing. I'm going to finish him off."

But a 16-year-old girl who went to the party told the court that Large told her how she had stabbed the teenager.

She said Large was very calm as she said: "He is dead. I have stabbed him. He's in a really bad way."

Following pre-sentence reports, McGarvie's lawyer Rock Tansey today asked for leniency pointing out that she was 17 at the time of the attack, had no previous history of violence to others, and had fallen under the influence of the older Large. He also said reports suggest she is a low risk of reoffending.

He told the court: "She was immature and has specific and severe emotional problems.

"Gemma McGarvie was a very vulnerable person. We submit that she fell under the influence and spell of Lorraine Large who was an older young woman."

He added: "She played an important but lesser part than Lorraine Large in the assault. It is our submission what had happened she bitterly regretted."

But speaking for Large, Paul Dunkels said it would be "dangerous and unfair" to pass responsibility of McGarvie's actions onto her.

From the pre-sentence reports, he said Large too was a "vulnerable young woman with low-self esteem" who continues to harm herself and has shown signs of remorse.

The Judge told the pair today: "We do not know what was going on in your minds as neither of you had the guts to tell but we do know what ... (the victim) was thinking. Like any child in such a nightmare situation, he was calling for the help of his mum. Your response to that was to inflict more knife wounds.

"You have both done your level best to lie your way out of the situation which indicates to me you have no real remorse."

Neither women showed any emotion as they were taken down from the dock to start their sentences.


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