Killer child 'slept with a knife under her pillow'

An inquest into the death of a man in West Sussex has been told that the girl who killed him had slept with a knife under her pillow.

Nimroy Hendricks, 24, was found in Russell Way, Three Bridges, Crawley, in October 2020, with a stab wound to the chest, hours after she had threatened to stab her mother in the neck.

Eight months before the attack, the 14-year-old, who cannot be identified because of her age, had stabbed her mother in the leg and tried to burn down her house.

Frederick Powell, a barrister representing Mr Hendricks' parents, told West Sussex, Brighton & Hove Coroner's Court the teen had "been known to carry knives and on occasions slept with a knife under her pillow".

The court heard from a police officer, the girl's integrated offender manager, who said she believed this was a "one off".

The teenager, referred to in court as Child A, had been missing for four days before she was found by police officers.

Her mother, who was staying in London, had asked police to take her daughter to a safe place if she was found.

Officers instead left the teenager with a woman, who claimed to be her cousin and had a criminal record, despite the girl having no known relatives in the area.

Just hours later she killed Mr Hendricks.

Det Con David Symonds, who had left the girl with the older woman, was asked by Mr Powell: "Given you understood she had no family in the area, why did you then choose to believe Child A at 02:15 in the morning?"

The officer responded: "I had no reason to doubt her."

Asked by coroner Penelope Schofield if there was a way for police to check if people are related to each other, Mr Symonds said: "The only way is if someone manually puts that in the police systems."

The inquest continues.

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