Girls found guilty of Angela Wrightson murder to be sentenced

Two teenage girls who murdered a 39-year-old woman by battering her to death with household objects are due to be sentenced.

The girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will attend Leeds Crown Court for sentencing later today.

They were convicted this week of murdering Angela Wrightson, an alcoholic, in the living room of her home in Hartlepool, Co Durham.

The jury heard the two girls had battered her to death using items including a shovel, a printer, a coffee table and a stick studded with screws in an ordeal that lasted five hours.

The girls were 13 and 14 at the time of the attack.

Following the trial, prosecutors said: "In our society it is hard to imagine that two girls of such a young age could be capable of such violence."

Detective Chief Superintendent Peter McPhillips, of Cleveland Police, said he had never come across a crime like it in his 25-year career.

During the trial, the jury heard that the girls knew Ms Wrightson and had visited her on a number of occasions because she would buy them alcohol and cigarettes.

Ms Wrightson's body, with more than 100 injuries, was found in her blood-spattered living room in December 2014.