UK teenager guilty of stabbing his mother to death

A 17-year-old youth has been found guilty of the murder of his mother who he stabbed to death after losing his temper.

A 17-year-old youth has been found guilty of the murder of his mother who he stabbed to death after losing his temper.

Kieren Smith killed 42-year-old Leah Whittle at her home in Benville Road, Weymouth, Dorset, on July 21.

A jury found him guilty of murder at Winchester Crown Court today following an eight-day trial.

Smith is due to be sentenced at the same court tomorrow.

Following the conviction, Detective Inspector Marcus Hester, of Dorset Police, said: “This case involved a particularly horrific and sustained attack on a woman who was unable to defend herself.

“This is a very tragic case where a young man, through his own violent actions, has killed his mother.

“He now has to face the consequences of these actions as well as to live with the loss of his mother.

“Our sympathy is with Leah Whittle’s family and friends who are still coming to terms with their loss.”

The trial heard that Smith repeatedly attacked his mother in the flat they shared.

Richard Smith QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the defendant, who was 16 at the time, had an interest in knives and had a temper but he said the reason for the alleged murder would never be known.

Smith had denied the killing and said that men came down from Doncaster in Yorkshire to execute his mother because his brother had got into trouble over a drug debt.

He told friends and the police that he had seen the man or men attack his mother through a bathroom door and when they had left he had bolted the door, taken some money from his mother’s purse and escaped through a window and down a drainpipe.

Mr Smith told the jury that the defendant had spoken to a girlfriend in the hours before his mother was murdered to say she only had a couple of days to live because of the problems over the drug debt.

But Mr Smith alleged that this was just “setting a scene for some sort of attack on his mother” and that the teenager had either formed a murderous intent or the bravado of the conversation had spurred him on to commit murder because he was “brooding” over something that had happened between them.

He told the jury that the youngster should have called 999 or screamed for help, or called an ambulance but he did nothing but leave the flat.

He eventually went to a friend’s house with his mother’s blood on his face and on his socks, the court heard.

He was described as calm when he got there but he maintained he had witnessed the attack.

He said to friends he had disposed of a knife near to the flat but no weapon was ever found, the court heard.

Unemployed Ms Whittle had moved back to Dorset after living in Yorkshire until her marriage had broken down.

The court heard that her relationship with her son was often less than harmonious but the teenager told police the pair were close.

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