Killer teenager, 17, jailed for life for severing his mother's spine and stabbing her 94 times

Smith

Smith

A teenager who murdered his mother by stabbing her 94 times after he became fascinated with knives has been jailed for life.

Kieren Smith, 17, who was named for the first time yesterday after reporting restrictions were lifted by the judge, killed mum Leah Whittle in a ‘ferocious attack’ at her Dorset home on July 21,then claimed a gang of ‘mystery men from Yorkshire’ were to blame.

Jailing him for life yesterday Judge Guy Boney told Smith he would serve at least 15 years before he could be considered for parole.

The judge said: 'You have been convicted of a deeply shocking and really utterly dreadful offence - that of killing your own mother in as brutal a way as can be imagined.

'You have cut short by many years the life of the very person who gave you life in the first place and expressing your crime in that way tells everyone the true horror of what you did.'

Smith ‘rained down’ 94 blows in a ‘ferocious’ attack lasting over a minute with a knife he had bought on the internet, Judge Boney said.

He said: 'For the whole of that period it seems you were completely blacked out and engrossed in one thing - killing your own mother.'

The eight-day trial heard Smith attacked his 42-year-old mother in their flat in Benville Road, Weymouth, Dorset, before he told police she had been killed by drug-dealers.

The youth turned on his mother, stabbing her with at least one knife in an attack so sudden she had 'little chance' to defend herself.

He inflicted knife wounds across her head, back and front in the two-bedroomed flat they shared, jurors were told.

The court heard Smith had been expelled from school at the age of 14 and had spent the last two years alone in his room watching DVDs which fuelled his fascination with knives.

Judge Boney said: 'Your life revolved around watching DVDs alone in your room with an absence of emotional engagement.

'It is from that diet of constant DVDs that your fascination of knives came from.'

The judge told Smith: 'That kind of unhappy and unfulfilling life that you lived must, in fairness, be put against your background, that your parents separated when you were little more than a baby and your family life was almost non-existent.'

He said Smith had not shown a 'smidgen of remorse', although accepted he was not by nature an emotional man.

Nicholas Haggan QC, defending, said Smith’s motive for the killing was unknown.

He said: 'It’s always difficult to give an explanation and in this particular case it’s impossible. One will never know why the defendant did what he did.

'This is not an ordinary case; we accept it’s very unusual for a young man to kill his mother.'

Mr Haggan told how Smith, who has an IQ of 72 which puts him in the lowest four per cent of the population, was excluded from school after becoming disruptive, leading to drink and drugs problems.

He said the defendant had become isolated and shunned contact with others to avoid getting emotionally hurt.

He said: 'For the two years prior to the killing, the defendant spent it alone in his room watching DVDs. He led a very lonely existence.

'He is a very lonely and unhappy individual who finds it very difficult or impossible to express his true emotions - he has told us again and again he finds it impossible to cry.'

Mr Haggan added that Smith had shown little remorse and he believed his client may have blocked out the killing.

Divorced mum-of-three Ms Whittle was not found slumped against the hallway wall of her home until the following day in July.

Experts believe Ms Whittle was 'immobilised' early on in a horrific killing at her own son’s hands.

A blade wielded by Smith severed her spinal cord, a post mortem of her bloodstained body revealed.

There were no injuries on her arms or hands, suggesting she was rendered unconscious early in the attack.

Smith then took money from his mother’s handbag, changed his trousers and left through the window.

Smith told his three friends - all girls - that cuts on his hands were from scaling down the drainpipe.

But forensics experts found traces of his blood inside the flat.

Giving evidence, the girls recalled Smith’s socks had been soaked in blood, and that despite the terrible events he had acted as if nothing had happened.

Smith rang police to report his mother’s murder around 12 hours after she died, but turned his phone off and took the battery and SIM card out after giving the address.

The murder weapon has never been recovered.

Smith - who could not be named for legal reasons before his conviction - said he threw the knife the gang used into bushes as he fled.

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 said the reason for the murder would never be known.

Smith had denied the killing and said that men came down from Doncaster, South 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 a man or men attack his mother through a bathroom door and when they left he bolted the door, took some money from his mother’s purse and escaped through a window and down a drainpipe.

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

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

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.'

Culled from dailymail.co.uk