The detective who led the investigation into Britain’s youngest double murderers has praised the Spalding community for their support.
Det Ch Insp Martin Holvey said at first he found it hard to believe that two 14-year-olds had carried out the murders of school dinner lady Liz Edwards (49) and her 13-year-old daughter Katie.
The boy and girl, now 15, were each given life sentences at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday and were detained for a minimum tariff of 20 years.
Det Ch Insp Holvey said: “The community of Spalding have been incredibly supportive to the police and have been a real credit. “They want to understand what the facts have been and move on and get back to some kind of normality. I want to thank the whole community for all the support they have given my officers throughout the investigation.”
A serious case review is to examine if any opportunities were missed by the authorities in their dealings with the girl and boy.
The police, social services, health and education will all be involved. Social services will look at it and at whether anything could have been done better.
“Of course we will attempt to stop things like this happening again,” DCI Holvey insisted. “But if you turn back the clock to April this year who would have thought such an unexpected and unbelievable event would happen anywhere, never mind in Spalding.”
Det Ch Insp Holvey said it was clear from the evidence presented in court that the boy and girl who carried out the killings were “besotted” with each other.
“Two 14-year-olds who have killed is unprecedented. They are the two youngest who have committed double murder. They showed no remorse. Those features are all unprecedented,” he added.
“The lack of remorse was a feature from the beginning. They were absolutely besotted with each other.
“Their lives were so entwined. No-one else mattered. She was his life and he was her life.”
The pair were separated after the killings but continued to show little remorse during their police interviews, the officer stressed.
“He was cold. He was absolutely besotted with her,” DCI Holvey said. “After initially not speaking to us he told us what he had done. Throughout his interview he showed no remorse.”
Footage of the girl calmly answering questions after she arrived at the police custody desk was shown to the jury during her trial. She later gave officers a graphic account of the killings.
“She was besotted with him,” DCI Holvey added. “The sheer planning in this case, the sheer lack of remorse is unprecedented.
“It comes over as very chilling. This had been planned over the weekend before. It was a brutal, cold attack on two defenceless females in their own house.
“The level of planning beggars belief. The level of planning even for an adult was complex.”
DCI Holvey added: “They were happy to tell us straight away what they had done.
“Nothing has given us any indication as to where they got the idea from. I don’t know where they got it from.”
