The family of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe has suffered a fresh blow after the Attorney General declined to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, despite acknowledging that the jury had been misdirected.
Aria died after suffering a stab wound to the chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year.
The boy, who was 15 at the time and is now 16, admitted holding the knife when Aria received the fatal injury. However, he told the court that the stabbing had been accidental.
After the incident, he left the house without calling for help and went to a nearby railway station, where he told a group of children that he had ‘accidentally stabbed’ Aria.
He then told one child he knew: ‘I’m a murderer. I accidentally killed someone.’
Despite this, the teenager was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter and left court a free man.
Since the verdict, Aria’s father, Tom Thorpe, and the wider family have campaigned against what they describe as a ‘robbery of justice’ following the ‘incomprehensible’ loss of the child.
They promised to challenge the outcome, arguing that the trial judge made an error by instructing jurors that they had to be sure the teenager intended to ‘kill or cause really serious harm’ to Aria. The family says the jury should have been allowed to consider manslaughter based on recklessness.
Aria Thorpe died after being stabbed in her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, on December 15 last year
Aria, pictured with her father Tom Thorpe and his partner Sophie, was stabbed once in the chest
The family says that, even if the acquittal cannot be overturned, it wants the legal issues clarified so that other families do not face a similar situation.
Their campaign will ultimately seek the introduction of Aria’s Law, aimed at clarifying the definition of manslaughter in future cases.
However, the family suffered another setback this week when Attorney General Ellie Reeves refused to refer the case to the Court of Appeal over what she called a ‘jury misdirection’ by the presiding judge.
‘After careful consideration, I have concluded that this case does not raise a point of law that is unclear or otherwise in need of further clarification to prevent a similar jury misdirection in future cases,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘The grounds for referral to the Court of Appeal were not met in this case.’
In response, Aria’s family told the Daily Mail that they would ‘not accept’ the decision.
‘Sadly, another setback but we stay hopeful that something can be done and/or lessons are learnt from this massive injustice,’ they said.
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‘How can the justice system acknowledge things went wrong but yet we can’t do anything about it?’
They added: ‘We certainly aren’t going to accept the notification from the Attorney General that the law was clear but it was just not followed correctly.
‘We are not going to accept that there is no other means of remediation.’
‘Aria’s killer walked out of court before we even did and now lives a free life.’
The Attorney General has now declined to refer her case to the Court of Appeal over the ‘jury misdirection’
It came after they appealed to their local MP, Suella Braverman, who wrote to Ms Reeves and asked for the case to be sent under section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972.
This allows the Attorney General to refer a point of law to the Court of Appeal for clarification after a defendant has been acquitted.
The letter read: ‘Aria’s family, and I wish to see the Court of Appeal asked to clarify whether the judge was right to direct the jury as she did: specifically, whether recklessness as to death or really serious harm was properly excluded from the jury’s consideration, and whether the directions given adequately reflected the established bases of manslaughter, including gross negligence manslaughter and unlawful act manslaughter, as well as any residual role for recklessness in homicide directions.
‘We are concerned that, if the direction given in this case was wrong in law, juries in future cases may be denied a route to a manslaughter conviction that Parliament and the common law intend them to have, with serious implications for victims’ families and for public confidence in the justice system.’
However, after reviewing the case, Ms Reeves said she was not able to send it to the Court of Appeal on this basis.
There is also currently no option for the verdicts to be reviewed: under UK law, serious offences including murder and manslaughter can be retried only if ‘new and compelling’ evidence has emerged.
Aria’s family say their ‘immediate primary goal’ is to ‘understand how and why the justice system failed Aria’.
They plan to continue sharing news of their campaign on social media pages on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Attorney General Ellie Reeves KC MP said: ‘This case was shocking and it is clear the tragic loss of Aria Thorpe has left an immeasurable gap in her family’s lives.
‘I was asked to refer this case to the Court of Appeal and seek its opinion on a point of law. This power is reserved for instances where clarification is necessary to prevent a potential error of law from influencing future decisions in similar cases.’
‘After careful consideration, I have concluded that this case does not raise a point of law that is unclear or otherwise in need of further clarification to prevent a similar jury misdirection in future cases. The grounds for referral to the Court of Appeal were not met in this case.
‘I appreciate that this outcome will be deeply disappointing for Aria’s family. I have given this request the most careful consideration, and my role is limited to making references on a point of law, meaning even if this request had met the grounds for referral, this could not overturn the acquittal.’