Two girls given life sentences for 'uniquely brutal' murder of Angela Wrightson

Two teenage girls have been handed life sentences with a minimum of 15 years for the murder of a vulnerable woman at her home in Hartlepool.

Angela Wrightson, 39, a chronic alcoholic who weighed no more than seven stone, suffered more than 100 injuries, including 80 to her face, as the girls attacked her with a variety of household items, including a television, a coffee table and a shovel. A wooden stick laced with screws was also used in the attack on 8 December 2014, which lasted at least five hours.

The pair, who cannot be named, were 13 and 14 at the time and had consumed a cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs. They posted images of the attack on social media and deliberately placed shards of glass and small pieces of gravel across intimate areas of the victim's semi-naked body.

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They even called the police for a lift home and posed for a selfie in the back of the car, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Sentencing the teenagers at Leeds Crown Court today, Mr Justice Globe described it as a "cowardly attack" that included "gratuitous degradation".

He said that Wrightson "undoubtedly suffered considerably, both mentally and physically, before she ultimately lost consciousness and died".

The girls, who are now 15 years old, used to visit the victim, who would buy them alcohol and cigarettes. Both tried to pin the blame on the other.

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter McPhillips, of Cleveland Police, described the case as "uniquely brutal" given the age of the killers.

Both had been in local authority care, with the older girl a regular drug user from the age of 11.

Wrightson's mother, in a letter to the court, said she would "never be able to blink away the horrifying image of her daughter's battered body when she saw her in the mortuary", said the judge.

He told the girls: "She cannot understand how you could have been as violent as you were. She's not alone in that."