Kayla Smith: Teenage girl admits murdering love rival in fatal stabbing

A teenage girl who stabbed her love rival to death in the street during a pre-planned fight over a boy has pleaded guilty to murder.

Kayla Smith, 18, fatally stabbed Chloe Watson Dransfield, 16, in the early hours of 28 March.

Chloe had been taken by her boyfriend, 18-year-old Blake Dowling, to Smith’s house.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Dowling had been in “on-off” relationships with both girls, and they would regularly argue over him.

Dowling’s mother said that Smith was “jealous and obsessed” over her son’s relationship with Chloe.

Smith had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder. However, on the second day of her trial on Thursday, she pleaded guilty to the more serious charge.

The trial will continue for her two co-defendants, Dowling and Archie Rycroft, 20, who followed Smith to the fight and is accused of recording it on a phone.

Dowling and Rycroft both deny murder and manslaughter.

The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC, said he would sentence Smith once the trial was over.

He warned her that the only sentence he could pass for murder was life imprisonment, but that he would need to set the minimum term she must spend in custody.

Prosecutors said that on the night of her death, Chloe was with Dowling at his mother’s house.

When Smith found out she was there, the two girls argued over the phone and agreed to fight.

Jurors heard that in the hours leading up to the fight, Smith repeatedly threatened to stab Chloe.

A friend of Chloe’s who was on FaceTime with her that night said she heard Dowling answering his phone and heard Smith screaming: “Blake, I’m gonna smash your head in… you better not be with no girls… Chloe better not be there.”

When Chloe said that she was there, the witness heard Smith say: “I’m gonna stab you in your throat.”

Dowling booked a taxi to take Chloe to Smith’s home in the Austhorpe area of Leeds.

CCTV and Ring doorbell footage shown in court showed Smith emerging from the summer house in her grandfather’s garden, where she lived, holding a knife.

She could be heard shouting: “Come on big girl”, and was then seen running back to the summer house with Rycroft after the stabbing.

Chloe, who had been stabbed five times in the neck and back, bled to death.

CCTV footage taken at 5.12am, about one minute after the stabbing, shows Smith and Rycroft with Geoff Smith outside the summer house.

Geoff Smith is heard saying “I’m ringing the police” and Smith replies: “You can’t ring the police, she’s dead.”

Geoff Smith called for an ambulance 37 minutes after the stabbing, and was seen by a neighbour performing CPR on Chloe on the footpath.

The court heard Chloe was taken by ambulance to hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.40am.

When police arrested Smith and Rycroft, they were “laughing and joking” with two of their friends and using nitrous oxide in front of officers, Mr McKone said.

Mr McKone said Dowling denied knowing that Chloe would be caused really serious harm, while Rycroft said he followed Smith out of curiosity and did not see that she had a knife.