Teenager jailed for stabbing 19-year-old sister to death

A teenager who stabbed his older sister to death has been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years and five months.

Mali Bennett-Smith, who was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after pleading guilty on Monday morning, told police his sister was “annoying” and he wanted to kill her.

The court heard the 17-year-old held Luka Bennett-Smith in a headlock before stabbing her repeatedly at the home they shared in the St Andrews area of the city on October 20 last year.

He rang emergency services 20 minutes later.

“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 that Bennett-Smith grew up on a remote farm in New Zealand, where he was home-schooled, but after his parents divorced he moved to the UK with his sister and mother with the aim of going to college to prepare to join the Army.

He later dropped out of his college course, the court was told.

He and his sister were at home on their own when the killing took place.

In a prepared statement he later gave to police, Bennett-Smith said his sister, who had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was “annoying” and he felt she bullied him.

“She agreed, we have done this before and when she needed me to stop we had an agreement where she would tap me on the arm.

“On this occasion I had decided I was not going to stop, I wanted to kill her, I had enough with regards she had been treating me over the years and recently.”

Sentencing him to detention during his majesty’s pleasure, the judge said: “The killing was shocking and brutal.

“It has deprived Luka of her life, your parents in effect of two of their children, and will deprive you of your liberty.”

Ray Tully KC, defending, said Bennett-Smith has severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and, although he has an above average IQ, was found to have below average “processing speed”.

Mr Tully said the defendant would disappear into a world of video gaming and become dissociated from the real world.

He said: “Mali did not know how to manage his increasing feelings of frustration and resentment towards Luka.”

He said the teenager had “genuine remorse” for his actions.

The judge lifted reporting restrictions on naming the defendant after an application by the PA news agency.

After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Nadine Partridge of Avon and Somerset Police said: “Our thoughts remain fully with Luka’s family at this difficult time. They continue to be updated and supported by specially trained family liaison officers.”