A 29-year-old man, deeply fascinated by crimes involving child murders, carried out a violent attack on a nine-year-old girl, stabbing her in the neck while she was playing outside. His actions were reportedly influenced by the Southport killings, an event he had closely followed.
Before the incident, Jordan Wilkes had spent time watching YouTube videos and listening to podcasts about crimes involving murdered children. Among the cases he studied were the Southport attack that resulted in the deaths of three young girls, the tragic murder of James Bulger, and several high school shootings in the United States.
Hours before the attack, he watched a video on Aiden Fucci, who murdered a 13-year-old American schoolgirl by stabbing her 114 times.
Just three weeks after the Southport killings, Wilkes’ victim had been playing with a friend on the stairwell outside his flat in Christchurch, Dorset.
Fuelled by thoughts of ‘fulfilling a sick fantasy,’ he opened his door and stabbed the girl three times in the neck, shoulder, and knee with a pen knife without saying a word.
She and her friend managed to flee to the safety of another flat, but the wounds to the girl’s shoulder and knee were so deep that the bone was visible. She was able to make a full recovery.
Wilkes was arrested by armed police who raided his flat shortly after the attack. Police also recovered a clump of the girl’s hair, which Wilkes either ‘cut as a trophy’ or wrenched from her scalp while attacking her.
He denied a charge of attempted murder but was found guilty following a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.
Berenice Mulvanny, prosecuting, said Wilkes had an ‘unhealthy fascination with the murder of children and saw his opportunity to fulfill some sort of sick fantasy.’
She said: ‘She was just playing with a friend on the stairwell outside the flat this defendant lived in with his mother.
‘He came out of the flat. He didn’t say anything but grabbed hold of her arm, then struck her with the knife three times, once to the top of the neck by the jawline, once to the shoulder, and once to the side of her knee.’
Giving evidence, the girl said of the attack: ‘I saw him reach into his pocket. I didn’t know that it was a knife. He hid it with his arm behind him, then he came at us.
‘He grabbed hold of my arm really tight so I couldn’t escape, and he was aiming for this area [pointing to her neck].’
Her friend described Wilkes as ‘mad-looking.’
His mobile phone revealed a ‘particularly concerning’ search history, including 69 files related to violence, knives, and child killings in the three months before the attack.
Ms. Mulvanny said: ‘What was found on that phone shows an unhealthy interest in violence, in knives, but in particular, the murder of children.
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‘There were searches and videos watched regarding child serial killers, the murder of James Bulger, and the riots that resulted in Southport after the murder of three girls. The Southport murders took place in July, and the attack on [the nine-year-old] happened weeks later.’
A forensic pathologist told the court that the girl had a 2cm-long neck wound and an 8cm gash above her collarbone. The chest wound was deep and could have resulted in serious injury or death if it had damaged underlying areas.
Wilkes will be sentenced in April.
