Spalding double murder: 'Youngest ever' couple convicted

Two teenagers have become the youngest couple ever to be convicted of double murder in Britain.

The pair, who cannot be named for legal reason, were 14 when they killed dinner lady Elizabeth Edwards, 49, and her 13-year-old daughter Katie at their home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in April. The prosecution said it had been a "cold, calculated and pre-planned attack".

They took a bath straight after the murders and then settled down to watch the hit film Twilight, causing them to be dubbed the "Twilight Killers".

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

During the trial, they "were compared to the infamous American crime duo Bonnie and Clyde", says the Daily Telegraph. One psychiatrist said the killings would not have happened if they had not been in a relationship.

Although the boy admitted to the two murders, the girl was the "driver" behind the brutal killings, the court was told. She was a "ticking time bomb" fuelled by "sheer contempt" for her victims.

"There is madness in me and death is the only way," she wrote in a diary.

Jurors at Nottingham Crown Court dismissed a plea of manslaughter by the girl on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The pair will be sentenced at a later date.