Heartbroken mother shares last Christmas photo of Katie Rough, seven, whose throat was slit by a 15-year-old killer
- Alison Rough posted an emotional tribute to murdered daughter on Facebook
- It shows Katie Rough opening presents just two weeks before her murder
- She was smothered and stabbed to death by a 15-year-old girl in January 2017
Katie Rough’s mother has posted a heartfelt tribute to the murdered youngster of her last Christmas alive.
Alison Rough posted the moving snap on her Facebook account which shows Katie opening presents on Christmas day – just two weeks before she was smothered and her throat was slit while playing in a field near her family home.
In a caption accompanying the picture, Alison Rough wrote: ‘This was her very last Christmas.
Alison Rough posted a picture of daughter Katie opening presents on Christmas Day just two weeks before she was killed in January 2017
Alison Rough (right) and John Rough (left) embrace as hundreds turned out at a local primary school to release balloons in Katie’s honour
‘We spoilt her rotten. I’m so glad we did. I could never say no to her xxx.’
Katie was found with severe lacerations to her neck and chest on a playing field in York in January 2017 and did not respond to frantic attempts to revive her.
Her 15-year-old killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordered to be detained for a minimum of five years by a judge at Leeds Crown Court in November 2017.
The defendant, who admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility, was seen clutching a soft toy as she appeared by video-link.
Katie was smothered and then stabbed to death by a 15-year-old murderer while playing in a field near her home in York
Her 15-year-old killer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ordered to be detained for a minimum of five years in November 2017
Katie’s family looked on from the jury box. They said afterward that their lives had been ‘torn apart on a day when we lost our daughter’ and their home ‘feels very empty’.
Sentencing the teenage killer, Mr Justice Soole said: ‘The level of danger to the public is high. In the circumstances of your continuing silence, the critical question is whether there is any reliable estimate as to how long that danger will continue.
‘All the experts are hampered by your silence.’
The judge told the teenager that ‘what precisely’ happened on the field ‘is known only to you’.
He said: ‘Further and most disturbing evidence points to this being planned and based on delusional thoughts.’
The judge told the court: ‘The utter tragedy and devastation of all this needs no emphasis.’