A teenager has been jailed for at least 10 years and five months for the murder of his sister, who he said he found “annoying” and had “hated” his whole life.
Mali Bennett-Smith, 17, fatally stabbed 19-year-old Luka Bennett-Smith after telling her he wanted to practise a headlock on her at the home they shared in Bristol in October.
The pair, who were home by themselves at the property in the St Andrews area at the time, had an agreement that Bennett-Smith could practise the grip on her, provided he stopped when she tapped his arm, a court heard.
But on the day in question, he ignored her signal and instead continued to hold her before stabbing her repeatedly.
In a prepared statement he gave to police later, Bennett-Smith said his sister, who had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was “annoying” and he felt she bullied him.
He told officers: “After watching a video, I went downstairs to the lounge and I asked Luka if I could practise a headlock on her.
“She agreed, we have done this before, and when she needed me to stop we had an agreement where she would tap me on the arm.
“On this occasion I had decided I was not going to stop, I wanted to kill her, I had enough with regards [to how] she had been treating me over the years and recently.”
He was handed the life sentence after pleading guilty to her murder at Bristol Crown Court on Monday.
The court heard he rang emergency services 20 minutes later, shortly before 6.30pm, and told them: “I stabbed my sister to death.”
He told operators they had not been arguing, but said he “hated her my whole life” and “just didn’t want to ever see her again”.
The judge called the killing “shocking and brutal” and said it had deprived his parents “in effect of two of their children”.
He said the use of a knife, the fact Bennett-Smith “undoubtedly intended to kill” and the brutality were aggravating features.
He added: “The scene that met the paramedics on arrival at that house will, I imagine, live with them forever.”
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Ray Tully KC, defending, said Bennett-Smith has severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and, although he has an above average IQ, was found to have below average “processing speed”.
He said the teenager’s “somewhat unconventional” upbringing meant he did not mix with other children his own age, and spent a lot of time gaming.
Bennett-Smith grew up on a remote farm in New Zealand, where he was home-schooled and moved to the UK with his sister and mother when his parents divorced, the court heard.
The teenager was named after the judge lifted reporting restrictions following an application by the PA news agency.
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