LIVERPOOL - A 14-year-old British boy was yesterday ordered detained indefinitely for the murder of a schoolgirl of nine whom he battered to death on a railway line last November. Brian Smith, who was 13 at the time of the murder, showed no emotion as he was led from the dock by a social worker after sentence was passed.
The court heard that Smith beat Jade Matthews to death with a window frame last July at Bootle in north-western England because he was afraid she would tell her stepfather after Smith had pushed her over and cut her head. Judge John Kay told him: "I think you are a very, very dangerous boy. . What you did that day was a dreadful, wicked thing."