Katie Sharon Rough (16 January 2009 – 9 January 2017), a 7-year old English girl, died in the Woodthorpe area of her hometown of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, on 9 January 2017. She was killed by a girl aged 15 years old at the time, who handed herself in to the police immediately after attacking Rough. Under UK law, Rough's killer was considered a minor at the time of the killing, and so her name was not made publicly known in the subsequent investigation and trial. Rough's killer pleaded guilty to

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

on grounds of

diminished responsibility In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental f ...

. It emerged that the teenager had been suffering from

psychosis Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...

at the time of the attack, caused by an unknown

psychiatric disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

and she was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of five years' detention on 24 November 2017.

Attack

Katie Rough was last seen alive at 4:20 p.m. on 9 January, with a local resident subsequently reporting to have seen her and her eventual killer playing together in a playing field near Alness Drive, without any indications of the violent act which was to follow. Fifteen minutes later, at 4:35 p.m., the elder girl placed a

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Books * ''999'' (anthology) or ''999: T ...

call and confessed to having killed Rough, though claimed not to remember any specific details of the event. The girl was then found by another local resident, Peter Mills, who subsequently found Rough's body a short distance away down a side street. Though attempts were subsequently made to resuscitate Rough, she was ultimately pronounced dead at

York Hospital York Hospital is a National Health Service teaching hospital in York, England. It is managed by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an NHS foundation trust which also runs several other hospitals in North Yorkshire ...

at 5:40 p.m., a little over an hour after the initial 999 report was made. An autopsy of Rough's body revealed that she had been fatally asphyxiated, with a green glove later being identified as the murder weapon. It was also found that wounds had been inflicted on her in the neck and chest areas with a Stanley knife, though it was determined that said wounds were not inflicted until after she was already dead.

Aftermath

Around the time that Rough was officially declared dead, the 15-year-old girl was arrested and formally charged with her

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. Subsequent investigations found that she suffered

auditory hallucination An auditory hallucination, or paracusia, is a form of hallucination that involves perceiving sounds without auditory stimulus. While experiencing an auditory hallucination, the affected person would hear a sound or sounds which did not come from t ...

s and

delusion A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...

s and often experienced violent fantasies, which she acted out by mutilating and defacing soft toys at her home.The Guardian
Katie Rough death: teenager pleads guilty to manslaughter
/ref> It was also found that she was convinced that most of the people around her were robots disguised as humans. In the previous year, she had been taken out of school due to her mental state, and had engaged in

self-harm Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury and self-mutilatio ...

ing since late 2015. It was also determined that the killing was a premeditated act, though it was uncertain whether the target was Rough specifically or if the attack was opportunistic. Rough's funeral took place at

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

on 13 February 2017. The service was led by

John Sentamu John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu, Baron Sentamu, (; ; born 10 June 1949) is a retired Anglican bishop and life peer. He was Archbishop of York and Primate of England from 2005 to 2020. Born near Kampala in Uganda, Sentamu studied law at Makerere U ...

, the

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

Trial and conviction

Rough's killer entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charge of murder in the initial hearing at

Leeds Crown Court Leeds Crown Court, more accurately the Crown Court at Leeds, is a venue of the Crown Court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated on Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts. Notable cases As Leeds As ...

on 16 February 2017. During the course of her trial, she received four further mental health evaluations which disagreed on the exact disorder she suffered from, but did agree that it affected her mental state up to and including the time of the killing. Despite evidence indicating that the killing had been a premeditated act, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

ultimately concurred that it was the result of the perpetrator's mental disorders, and offered her the opportunity to plead guilty to

on the grounds of diminished responsibility. She accepted the offer and changed her plea to "guilty" on the first day of her trial, 3 July 2017. Her defence counsel described her as an "extremely troubled and damaged teenager", and the judge ordered that the case be adjourned until 20 July, so that further psychiatric assessments could be made prior to final sentencing, though it was subsequently adjourned a second time until September. On 7 September she was given an interim hospital order to allow for additional mental health assessments,BBC News
Katie Rough death: Teen given interim hospital order
/ref> and on 24 November, she was "detained for life" and ordered to serve a minimum term of five years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rough, Katie 2017 crimes in the United Kingdom British female murderers Crime in Yorkshire Deaths by person in England Female murder victims History of York January 2017 crimes in Europe January 2017 events in the United Kingdom Murdered English children Incidents of violence against girls

Attack

Aftermath

Trial and conviction

See also

References