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Miles Hughes, 18 years old, met a girl during the afternoon last July 9 and took her to an undisturbed spot of West Hampstead graveyard where they continued talking and listened to music.
The girl, who’s 15 years old, was startled when Hughes started talking about serial killers and their origins. Hughes then brandished a Stanley knife and pointed it at her neck. He asked her, “How would you react if I said I was going to kill you?”
Hughes suddenly pinned her down and etched his name into her arm. Afterwards, he allegedly tried to rape her. Hughes left after finishing and left the girl bleeding to death.
Hughes was eventually arrested for wounding with intent and attempted murder and rape. He pleaded guilty to the first offense, and even though he pleaded innocent for the last two, he was still found guilty for both, the Metro reports.
Prosecutor Jane Osborne said Hughes pinned the girl down and sat on top of her while he wielded the knife in his hand. Hughes was also accused of choking her.
The victim said that Hughes pulled his pants down and raped her, according to a police interview.
The victim told the police, “He wouldn’t accept the fact I had to go. He sat on top of me saying, ‘You’re going to tell the police.’ He said, ‘There are voices in my head saying I need to kill you.’”
She continued, “He started to poke the thing into my neck. I started to cry. He started to cry and said, ‘I’m sorry.’ He went to stab me but he grabbed my other arm.”
Even though she attempted to push Hughes away. However, she was injured enough that she just couldn’t fight back anymore. Hughes punctured her in the neck and chest. The girl was left with lacerations and punctured wounds.
A bystander witnessed the attack and shooed off Hughes, who ran away immediately.
Although the victim claimed that she didn’t give her consent, Hughes said that it was consensual.
Hughes said, “The words ‘no, no, no’ kept going on in my head and I said, ‘you’re lying.’ She said, ‘I have to go.’ I then got really angry and in retaliation. I picked up my knife and I began to attack her.”
Hughes confessed, “I intended to cause her really serious harm and nothing else. I was not intending to kill her.”
Hughes was laughing and smiling as he ran away from the scene. The girl, who suffered 30 wounds, was thought to be dead.
Judge John Bevan QC told Hughes, “You are in my judgement a self-absorbed, jealous and controlling young man. You went with a 15-year-old girl to a cemetery for some mutual cutting, but it is obvious that you wanted sex and you would not take no for an answer.”
Judge Bevan added, “You believed you had killed her and it was pure good fortune at the far and somewhat desolate end of that graveyard that workman happened to be gardening behind a high wall and heard her screams.”
Hughes is sentenced to 13 years in prison.
