Sharon Carr tortured and killed animals. At the age of 12, she murdered one girl (1992); at the age of 14, stabbed another (1994) and attempted to strangled two nurses (ca 1994); and, at the age of 30, expressed a desire to murder another girl in prison (ca 2020).
On Jun 7, 1992, in Camberlry, Surrey, England, 12-year-old Sharon Louis Carr stabbed an 18-year-old girl named Katie Ratcliff 32 (some accounts state 29) times, killing her. Carr’s diary revealed a sexual aspect to the murder. Carr mutilated her victim’s genitals.
The diary included entries such as this:
• “If only I could kill you again, I promise I’d make you suffer more this time. … Your terrified screams turn me on.”
• “I am a killer. Killing is my business - and business is good.”
• “I was born to be a murderer. Killing for me is a mass turn-on and it just makes me so high I never want to come down. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams - sometimes even in my mirror, but I realise it was just me.”
• “I bring the knife into her chest. Her eyes are closing. She is pleading with me so I bring the knife to her again and again. I don’t want to hurt her but I need to do violence to her • “I need to overcome her beauty, her serenity, her security. There I see her face when she died. I know she feels her life being slowly drawn from her and I hear her gasp. I guess she was trying to breathe. The air stops in the back of her throat. I know all her life her breathing has worked, but it does not now. And I am joyful.”
• "The air stops in the back of her throat. I know all her life her breathing has worked, but it does not now. And I am joyful".
While in prison Carr attacked other prisoners and staff on multiple occasions.
On March 25, 1997, Carr was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On December 10, 2003, the sentence was reduced to 12 years. In 2020, Carr requested a change of status but the request was denied. She is seen as a danger to the public and continues to be incarcerated.
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Sharon Carr is frequently and incorrectly, called Britain’s youngest female killer, or “the youngest female murderer to be sentenced in the United Kingdom.” Mary Maher, of Dunkitt, County Kilkenny, Ireland (ten in UK), was 11 when she committed 3 murders, attempted another, and committed suicide in 1906. Mary Bell was 11, almost 12, when she committed two murders at Scotswood, England in 1968.
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CHRONOLOGY
Dec. 21, 1979 – Sharon Louise Carr born, British Honduras (now Belize). She would often be on the receiving end of her mother’s violence, once being punished by having pepper poured on her genitals.
1990 (ca) – At age of 11, Carr a neighbor's dog with a spade, and there was also a "suggestion" from a friend that she had fried live hamsters.
Jun. 7, 1992 – Sharon Louise Carr (12) stabs an 18-year-old girl named Katie Ratcliff 32 (29?) times, killing her, Camberlry, Surrey, England
Jun. 1994 – Carr attacked a pupil called Ann-Marie Clifford with a knife, for no apparent reason, at Collingwood College Comprehensive in Camberley, Surrey.
1994/5? – While she was in a young offender's institute for the second knife attack, she tried to strangle two nurses and started bragging about killing Katie.
Jan. 1996 – Carr, who was already locked up for stabbing a 13-year-old girl at school - told a warder she had murdered Katie Rackliff.
1996? – Carr charged with Ratcliff murder.
Mar. 25, 1997 – Carr was sentenced to life imprisonment. After 4-week trial. Winchester Crown Court.
1999 – Her tariff was reduced to 14 years.
Oct. 17, 2003 – decision on reduced sentence reviewed on by the Lord Chief Justice, who ruled that it should remain at 14 years.
Jun. 16, 1998 – Carr sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 and transferred to Broadmoor Hospital where she was assessed as suffering from schizoaffective disorder. She remained there until it changed from being a mixed-sex hospital to male-only, when she was moved to a different secure hospital in London, Broadmoor.
Jun. 10, 2001 – Sharon Carr (21) engaged to marry Robbie “Robbie” Layne (ca 24), another murderer inside Broadmoor high-security mental hospital.
Aug. 30, 2001 – Sharon Carr and Robbie Layne call off their wedding. They had paid for rings at Argos and were due to marry inside the top-security hospital. Each had read a newspaper report about the wedding that contained details of their crimes and they were so shocked about what the other had done, they split up immediately. Robbie Layne had stabbed and battered his mother at least 29 times and gouged out her eyes with a carpet sweeper handle in 1994, aged 17, in Dulwich, motivated by resentment that his sister was more favored. She had met him at an arranged prison event.
Dec. 10, 2003 – However, subsequent representations were submitted and the Lord Chief Justice again reviewed the tariff and recommended that her tariff be reduced to 12 years.
? – Carr relocated to HMP Bronzefield, female prison outside of Ashford, Middlesex.
2020 – Carr launches a legal challenge against her restricted prisoner status.
Mar. 29, 2020 – Request for change of status, High Court judge Mr Justice Julian Knowles wrote: '[Carr] had disclosed thoughts of wanting to murder another resident by splitting her head open with a flask and throwing her down the stairs to snap her neck.'
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SOURCES
Kim Sengupta, “I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams; Girl who stabbed hairdresser to death at the age of 12 is detained at Her Majesty's pleasure,” Independent, Mar. 26, 1997
Lucy Lawrence, “Devil's daughter to wed the mum killer Murderers fall in love in Broadmoor,” Sunday Mirror, Jun. 10, 2001
“Passion Killers; Cons cancel wedding after hearing of each other's evil.” Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland), Aug. 31, 2001
Jack Newman, “Britain's youngest female murderer – who stabbed a stranger to death aged just 12 –
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