A 16-year-old has been sentenced to seven years in custody for stabbing a school welfare officer in the face and chest.
Elisha Burkill, 16, attacked Joy Simon at the Winterton Community Academy, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, last year.
Mrs Simon, 61, was ‘thrown about by the force and ferocity of the attack upon her’ when she was attacked by Elisha, who was previously called an ‘ideal pupil’.
The teenager plotted revenge on welfare officer Joy Simon, 61, because she felt she had not done enough to help her and took offence at a ‘jokey’ comment she had made.
School welfare worker Joy Simon was attacked by 16-year-old Elisha Burkill while at work
A judge at Hull Crown Court today took the step of allowing the youth to be named and ordered her licence period be extended by five years after she is released.
Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, sitting at Hull Crown Court, told the teenager: ‘I have no doubt that if you had not been restrained … you would have, in all likelihood, killed Mrs Simon. You very nearly did.’
The attack came as a complete shock to the school and the teenager’s family, as Burkill was seen as a model, high-achieving pupil.
Burkill was suffering from a serious depressive illness which she had hidden from her family. The teenager showed no emotion as she was sentenced.
Judge Richardson has heard how Burkill went ‘flying’ into Mrs Simon’s office in the school and the inclusion support officer initially thought she was about to be hugged.
Mrs Simon’s wounds – to her face and chest – were initially thought to be life threatening
Prosecutor Richard Wright QC told Hull Crown Court: ‘As Joy Simon stood to her feet in an effort to defend herself, (the girl) used the knife that she possessed to stab Mrs Simon in the face and then tried to rain further blows down upon her with the knife.’
Mr Wright said Mrs Simon grabbed Burkill’s wrist but ‘the blows kept coming and Joy Simon was thrown about by the force and ferocity of the attack upon her’.
The prosecutor said Mrs Simon began screaming for help but, as she tried to get out of the door, the teenager repeatedly slammed it shut.
Mr Wright told Judge Richardson how the attack only ended when brave members of staff intervened, led by cleaner and lunchtime supervisor Kerry Ogg.
The court heard that Mrs Simon’s injuries were initially thought to be life-threatening.
One knife wound went into her lung. She also suffered a gash across her cheek which went through to her mouth and which has still not healed, leaving her scarred and constantly having to hold a towel against her face.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mrs Simon, whose husband died three years ago, said the ‘trauma and shock’ of what happened to her has changed her life ‘forever’.
The attack happened in Mrs Simon’s office at the Winterton academy, near Scunthorpe
A hearing last year heard how worrying notes found in the girl’s bedroom included one which said she would ‘go out with a bang in Year 11’ .
Psychiatrists said Burkill had no contact with mental health services but had a long history of a depressive illness.
She admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a bladed article. A charge of attempted murder was dropped.
Judge Richardson told the teenager last week that she would receive a ‘sentence of some substance’.
He added: ‘You have a chameleon-like temperament which can fill with fury and anger on occasions.
‘That is self-evidence from your vicious, brutal and determined conduct with a knife towards Mrs Simon.”
He added: ‘I harbour real and present fears that you pose a significant risk to other people of inflicting serious violence upon them if you saw the need.
‘It is your sheer unpredictability and your inherent nature that reveals to me that you are capable of visiting terrible violence others for irrational reasons.’