KATIE ROUGH'S KILLER DETAINED IN SPECIALIST HOSPITAL AS JUDGE SAYS SHE POSES 'HIGH RISK OF SERIOUS HARM TO OTHERS'

Katie Rough's killer has been detained for assessment in a specialist hospital for 12 weeks by a judge who told her she poses "a high risk of serious harm to others".

The seven-year-old girl was found with severe lacerations to her neck and chest on a playing field in York in January and did not respond to frantic attempts to revive her.

She actually died from being smothered by her attacker - a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Leeds Crown Court heard in July how the teenager was standing in a nearby cul-de-sac, covered in blood and carrying a blood-stained Stanley knife as she rang 999 to tell police what she had done.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Soole told the 16-year-old defendant she would be detained in hospital for 12 weeks before she is returned to court for further sentencing to take place on November 24.

The judge told her: "All sentencing options will be open when, at its conclusion, I make my final decision."

He said: "It is not in dispute that you currently pose a high risk of serious harm to others and to yourself."

The judge was told she may have been trying to prove Katie was not a robot as she had "irrational beliefs".

The girl denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility at the hearing in July.

This plea was accepted by the prosecution.

The judge has heard that the girl began suffering from mental health problems more than a year before the killing.

Prosecutors said she had reported delusional thoughts as well as depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

They said the girl had talked of being convinced that people "weren't human and were robots".

The previous hearing was told the girl became distressed when one doctor asked her later "whether she killed Katie to test whether she was a robot".

The court heard that, although psychosis was being investigated prior to the killing, it had not been diagnosed.

The judge told the girl he was making the hospital order "in order to try and obtain the fullest picture of your mental condition and its prospects of treatment before making my final decision as to the appropriate sentence in your case".

The judge stressed that, although the interim order can only be made for 12 weeks, one of the doctors has indicated "that the necessary management and assessment will take a minimum six months".