I’ve just done something silly, said woman accused of murdering 13-year-old girl in a Doncaster park

Hannah Bonser, 26, went into the offices of the Rethink organisation in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, after she attacked Casey Kearney in Elmfield Park in the town, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Casey died later in hospital.

Rethink worker Alan Brown told the court today that he answered the door to Bonser that day.

He said she asked to speak to his colleague, Tareen Mallin.

But he added that Bonser wanted him to stay because Miss Mallin would not be safe otherwise.

Mr Brown told the jury: “She felt that she’d done something silly and she wanted to speak to somebody.

“She then said that she’s stabbed somebody.”

Mr Brown said they went back inside the building where Bonser handed over two knives and the police were called.

He told the jury: “She was as calm as could be.

“She was lucid in her speech.

“It was as though we were just having a general conversation.

“There was no worry. There was no anxiety.”

Bonser denies murdering Casey, who was from Rossington, Doncaster, on February 14.

The court has heard she does not deny attacking Casey but is likely to claim diminished responsibility due to her mental condition.

Yesterday, haunting video showing the last moments before the teenager was fatally stabbed was shown to the jury.

Pictures taken by CCTV cameras on a bus and outside a dentist’s surgery showed Casey walking towards Elmfield Park, minutes before she was attacked.

The jury was also shown video of Bonser buying two kitchen knives in a Doncaster shop hours before the attack. The prosecution said one of the knives was used to kill her schoolgirl victim.

Mr Graham told the court the unprovoked daylight attack was “sudden and caught Casey completely unawares”. There had been “no scream, nor the sounds of any struggle”.

Mr Reeds said Bonser was a “woman with a troubled history” who was in regular contact with mental health workers and who had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital in October 2011.

The court was told Casey set out from her home in Rossington, Doncaster, last Valentine’s Day and took a bus towards the town centre, arriving at around 1pm.

She apparently missed her stop, meaning she had to get off the bus one stop later and walk through the park, where she met Bonser, who has since refused to talk about what happened.

Mr Reeds told the court Bonser was in regular contact with Rethink, which helps mental health patients in Doncaster, and had admitted the stabbing to staff half an hour after the attack.

He said the defendant then produced the two knives. One had a 6.3in (16cm) blade and had Casey’s blood on it.

The barrister said Bonser had visited a friend, Hayley Spouse, on February 11, saying she planned to stab her ex-boyfriend to death, and threatened “anyone else who crossed her”.

The court heard, in a police interview, Bonser’s solicitor said: “She’s hearing voices telling her to do things and not to do things. It’s a bit unclear what the situation is but they are obviously troubling her. It’s something that has been with her for some time and she has decided she does not want to answer questions about this particular incident.”

Following her arrest, police searched Bonser’s flat and found marks and cuts on a door, which had been made with a knife in a “forcible upward movement”, the court heard.

The marks were made at a similar height to the stab wound inflicted on Casey, Mr Reeds added.

He told the jury Bonser accepted she had killed Casey and said it was likely she would claim the partial defence of diminished responsibility, which would reduce what she did to manslaughter.

But he said the prosecution rejected the claim she “was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning which arose from a recognised medical condition” and said Bonser had intended to kill, or seriously harm, Casey and was in control of her actions at the time.

The jury of eight women and four men also saw a video interview with Lucia Franco, 14, the friend Casey had been on her way to meet when she was stabbed.

The teenager said she frantically tried to get in contact with Casey by sending repeated text messages, and said she had warned her not to go through the park.

Kerry Berry, who was one of the first on the scene of the attack, broke down as she gave evidence, saying that when she first came across her lying in the park she thought her body was a pile of bags.

She said she had tried to put her in the recovery position, moved her hair back from her face and stroked her cheek. But she did not realise Casey had been stabbed and thought she was having a fit.

In a statement read to the court, Casey’s mother, Kerry Day, said she and her daughter had told each other “I love you” as the teenager set off that morning.

The court was also shown video interviews with two 10-year-olds who were playing a few feet from where Casey was stabbed, who heard no screams or shouting.

Casey’s parents and grandparents listened to the opening of the trial from the public gallery, with some family members having to leave the court as some of the evidence was given.

Bonser, of Cusworth House flats in Doncaster town centre, sat in the dock wearing a sky blue T-shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms listening intently, flanked by four security guards.

The trial continues today.