Killing of Katie Rough

Killing of Katie Rough
LocationYork, United Kingdom
Date9 January 2017
4:20 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. (GMT)
Attack type
Child-on-child homicide by smothering, stabbing, manslaughter
WeaponsGlove, Stanley knife (used post-mortem)
VictimKatie Sharon Rough, aged 7
Perpetrator15-year-old female
MotiveUnclear, allegedly due to delusions of Rough being non-human
VerdictPleaded guilty
ConvictionsManslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility (24 November 2017)
ChargesFirst-degree murder (dropped)
SentenceLife imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 5 years

Katie Sharon Rough (16 January 2009 – 9 January 2017), a 7-year old English girl, died in the Woodthorpe area of her hometown of York in the United Kingdom, on 9 January 2017. She was killed by a girl aged 15 years old at the time, who handed herself in to the police immediately after attacking Rough. Under UK law, Rough's killer was considered a minor at the time of the killing, and so her name was not made publicly known in the subsequent investigation and trial.

Rough's killer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. It emerged that the teenager had been suffering from psychosis at the time of the attack, caused by an unknown psychiatric disorder and she was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of five years' detention on 24 November 2017.