A 17-year-old girl was killed in their family home’s kitchen, and her grieving family finds the killer’s sentence disgraceful.
Parents Matt and Carole Gould described their beloved daughter Elli as ‘kind, gentle and caring’ and said the teen had plans of going to a university.
But everything changed when her ex-boyfriend took her future away in a devastating attack that left the whole neighborhood horrified.
Thomas Griffiths, also 17, stabbed Ellie to death one day after they had broken up and tried to cover his tracks by going back to school. He even created a WhatsApp group and explained how he got his injuries.
The teen pleaded guilty to Ellie’s murder and was sentenced to 12 and a half years in jail, the Mirror reported.
Ellie’s heartbroken mother said: “I was devastated when he was sentenced but we had been pre-warned. Then he was sentenced to 12 years but the judge talked about the aggravating factors and added another five years, taking the total to 17 years.”
“However, the court was obliged to make a reduction because of his early guilty plea and then there were statements from his family and friends to say this was out of character, so his sentence was 12-and-a-half years,” Carole continued.
“After the case, we started off by writing to the Attorney General – and it wasn’t just us, members of the public also wrote because they were so unhappy with the sentence, these weren’t friends or family, these were people we’d never met.
“But because the sentence was within the sentencing guidelines, the Attorney General rejected our appeals for a review – that was a big blow. So much for the sentence fitting the crime.”
The grieving mother described her daughter as “very kind and caring, she was a really gentle girl but she had a great sense of humor and a lot of friends.
“One of her passions was animals and especially horses, she was a keen horse rider. Ellie was thinking of joining the mounted police because of her horse riding skills.”
Ellie had met Griffiths through mutual friends and became a couple. But one day after she ended their relationship, the horrific murder occurred.
“Griffiths seemed completely normal. He was very quiet and quite boring to be honest. We didn’t meet him that many times, he would come for dinner sometimes but he didn’t have much of a personality,” Carole expressed.
“We both, Matt and I, said it was odd because she was so bubbly and he seemed so boring and dull. We didn’t think it would last very long.
“Ellie had decided to end the relationship to concentrate on her A-levels. He was starting to become a bit obsessive and he wanted to see her every night after school.
“I think she’d had enough of it. She wanted to go riding after school and she see her friends but he always wanted to see her. I think she saw the warning signs and she ended it.”
The victim had been stabbed 13 times and it took more than three hours before the body was found.
Matt and Carole are now campaigning for tougher sentences for domestic murders and teen offenders.
“If you take a knife out in the street and you stab somebody, it will be seen as premeditation and adult sentencing starts at 25 year,” Carole said.
“If you commit a most heinous crime in somebody’s house to somebody you know, the starting point is 15 years, because you didn’t take the weapon to the scene.
“But why should a life taken in the home by somebody be worth any less than a life taken in the street by a stranger? It doesn’t make sense.”
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Replaced!