Mali Bennett-Smith, 17, and his sister were at home alone when he killed her last October in Bristol, and he told police his sister was “annoying” and he felt she bullied him
A teenager who murdered his sister because he found her annoying has been jailed.
Mali Bennett-Smith, 17, who was named after a judge lifted reporting restrictions, pleaded guilty to killing 19-year-old Luka. He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years and five months.
A court heard she agreed he could practise a headlock on her. But instead of letting go when she tapped him – as he had done on previous occasions – he kept hold of her before stabbing her repeatedly.
He rang emergency services 20 minutes later to say: “I stabbed my sister to death.” The court heard he told them they had not been arguing, but said: “I hated her my whole life and, I don’t know, I just didn’t want to ever see her again.”
Sentencing him to detention during His Majesty’s pleasure yesterday, Judge William Hart said: “It’s often said in courts when a child has died: ‘It must be every parent’s worst nightmare’. The horror of the loss of their daughter at the hands of the son they still love is beyond even the worst nightmares.”
The court heard Bennett-Smith grew up on a farm in New Zealand. After his parents divorced he moved to the UK with his sister and mum and wanted to join the army, but quit a college course.
He and his sister were at home alone when he killed her last October in St Andrews, Bristol. He told police his sister, was “annoying” and he felt she bullied him.
He added: “On this occasion I had decided I was not going to stop, I wanted to kill her. I had enough with regards to how she’d been treating me over the years.”
The court heard Bennett-Smith did not mix with other children his own age and spent a lot of time video gaming.