A teenager who murdered a 16-year-old rival in a dispute over a boy she had never met pleaded with her grandfather not to call police, newly released footage shows.
Beautician Kayla Smith, 18, fatally stabbed Chloe Dransfield after an escalating dispute involving Blake Dowling, 18, with whom both girls had been in on-off relationships.
In the early hours of March 28 this year, Chloe travelled with Dowling by taxi to the home of Smith’s grandfather in Austhorpe, Leeds.
Within minutes, Smith had attacked Chloe, stabbing her five times in the back and neck. One of the wounds penetrated her lung and proved fatal.
Smith was captured on CCTV inhaling laughing gas shortly before the attack. She then approached Chloe with a knife, shouting, “Come on, big girl.” On the second day of her trial, she pleaded guilty to murder.
She had previously admitted manslaughter. Her two co-defendants, Dowling and 20-year-old Archie Rycroft, deny both manslaughter and murder.
Harrowing CCTV footage recorded at 5.12am—one minute after the stabbing—shows Smith pleading with her grandfather not to call police while Chloe lay dying in the street.
Dowling, who was sitting on a fence in the garden, can be heard saying: “You just killed her, stone dead.”
Kayla Smith (left) denied killing Chloe Dransfield to her grandfather (centre) and pleaded with him not to call police in CCTV footage recorded at his Leeds home on March 28
Chloe Dransfield, 16, died on the morning of March 28 after being stabbed five times in the back and neck
Smith, 18, had threatened to stab Chloe several times before the fatal encounter and later pleaded guilty to murder
Smith replied: “No, I haven’t. No, I haven’t killed her. I haven’t killed her.”
Her grandfather, Geoff Smith, who was wearing a dressing gown, told her: “I’m ringing the police.”
Instead of expressing concern for Chloe, Smith pleaded with him: “You can’t ring the police, she’s dead.”
Smith had been living in a garden annexe at her grandfather’s property when the killing took place.
Neighbours attempted to save Chloe after finding her gravely injured on the pavement, lying in a large pool of blood. She had been using her mother’s surname, Miss Watson.
Mr Smith called an ambulance and was seen by a neighbour performing CPR on Chloe on the footpath.
Chloe was taken to hospital by ambulance but was pronounced dead at 6.40am.
Judge Mr Justice Cavanagh KC told Smith that she faces “custody for life” when she is sentenced at a later date.
Dowling’s mother described Smith as “jealous and obsessed” with her son’s relationship with Chloe. The court heard that the pair had argued on the evening before the killing.
Prosecutors said Smith and Chloe had been “at war” over Dowling, despite never meeting face to face.
A friend of Chloe told jurors that Smith had repeatedly threatened to stab her rival in messages and voice notes sent through social media apps.
Giving evidence at the start of the trial, the teenage witness said Smith began dating Dowling when she was 13 and remained “obsessed” with him.
Geoff Smith (left) was seen by a neighbour attempting to perform CPR on Chloe, who was also helped by other residents
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Kayla Smith, 18, pleaded guilty to Chloe’s murder on the second day of her trial
She said: “Chloe always told me, ‘Kayla’s saying she’s going to stab me again,’ laughing about it.
“It’s been quite a few times—every time they’ve argued. About 20 times, probably.”
The friend told the court that tensions boiled over in the hours before Chloe’s death, when Smith repeatedly called Dowling from a withheld number.
Smith began “screaming” after learning that her former boyfriend was with Chloe, with whom he had been in an on-off relationship for about a year.
The witness said Smith told Chloe: “Come here, I’m going to stab you in your throat.”
Chloe replied: “Try to stab me in the throat and I’ll take it right out of your hands.”
Later, Chloe messaged her teenage friend: “I’m off to go and fight Kayla.”
In a police-recorded interview, the friend added: “Five minutes later she sent me a photo of herself in the taxi. That was the last time I spoke to her.”
About 34 minutes before the 5.11am killing, Smith messaged a cousin: “I’m stabbing her, on my nana’s ashes.”
Seventeen minutes later, she sent further messages saying: “She’s on her way” and “I’m stabbing her.”
A neighbour’s Ring doorbell camera recorded Smith “striding quickly” along the pavement with “something shiny” in her hand. She was shouting: “Come on, big girl” and “Come on then, I will stab you.”
The footage also showed Smith inhaling laughing gas before the attack and running back to the summer house in her grandfather’s garden afterwards.
Chloe was stabbed three times in the back and twice in the neck with a 20cm kitchen knife. A post-mortem examination found that a 13cm wound to her back had penetrated her lung and caused her death.
When police arrested Smith and Rycroft, the pair were reportedly “laughing and joking” with two friends and using nitrous oxide in front of officers.
Officers who arrived at the scene found nitrous oxide canisters scattered around Smith’s annexe.
They also reported that the outbuilding had a “strong stench” of cannabis.
PC Nicholas Taylor said: “Kayla Smith came to the door wearing pyjamas and stated that she had not heard or seen anything.
“Shortly afterwards, another female arrived at the scene and stormed into the outhouse, demanding to be let inside.
“We then noticed that two males were also inside the outhouse. They denied any knowledge of or involvement in the incident and said nobody else had been at the address the previous night.
“The building had a strong stench of cannabis. There were also a number of large nitrous oxide canisters.”
Dowling is accused of murder after allegedly travelling with Chloe to meet Smith while knowing that a fight had been planned.
Rycroft is accused of murder after allegedly encouraging the violence by filming Smith’s fatal attack on his mobile phone before the recording was deleted.
Smith will be sentenced after the trial of the male defendants, which is ongoing, has concluded.
