Bully locked up for teenager's window leap death

A teenage girl who bullied vicar's daughter Rosiemeiri Boxall into jumping to her death from a window was ordered to be detained for eight years today.

Hatice Can, 15, was led away in tears as she was told her sentence must be a deterrent to others.

Can, of Belvedere, Kent, and Kemi Ajose, 19, of Charlton, south-east London, were found guilty of the manslaughter of Miss Boxall, 19, at the Old Bailey last month.

Ajose, who had a history of mental health problems, was ordered to be detained without limit of time at a psychiatric hospital.

Judge Peter Thornton told them: "This was cruel, abject bullying. It was ugly, vicious and repeated.

"As was once said: 'Bullies are always cowards at heart and may be credited with a pretty sure instinct in scenting their prey'.

"Rosi was the quiet one, which no doubt is why you picked on her."

Judge Thornton said Can had been the leader and Ajose had joined in.

He told Can that her eight-year youth custody order would have been higher had she been older.

Ajose had continued to bully vulnerable women in custody at Holloway Prison.

"You tried to get several of them to hang themselves with their bedding," the judge said.

Neither of the girls had shown "a flicker of remorse".

He added: "At the age of 19, having been given a wonderful chance in life through her adoptive parents, and despite struggling in her teenage years, she had her whole life in front of her.

"The two of you have taken all that away. Rosi's family and friends now mourn the loss of a loved one."

Can and Ajose had blamed each other for the death of Miss Boxall in May last year, when she threw herself from a third-floor window in Blackheath, south east London.

Can was only 13 at the time and had been staying at Ajose's flat with Miss Boxall who had left her family home in nearby Thamesmead.

The prosecution at the Old Bailey said Miss Boxall plunged from the window to escape after being beaten up following a spat about a boy.

Part of the attack on Miss Boxall by Ajose was filmed on a mobile phone by a neighbour and played to the jury.

Can had shouted insults and was said to have callously cried out: "Serves you right, bitch" as Miss Boxall lay dying on the ground.

Can and Ajose claimed the other had said "Yes" when Miss Boxall asked: "Do you want me to jump?"

The Rev Simon Boxall, who runs an Anglican community church, said outside court that he and his wife Rachel would pray for the bullies.

He said: "We want them to know that we forgive them."

Mr Boxall had said: "We continue to pray for those who are responsible for Rosi's death.

"We want them to know we forgive them. That does not mean that what they did 'doesn't matter'. Of course it does."

He said it was important to hold the trial for the teenagers to face up to the consequences of what they had done.

But he added: "Forgiveness means that we refuse to be shackled by bitterness and our prayer is that forgiveness will allow the girls to be released from the burden of what they have done."

Miss Boxall was born in Brazil and abandoned in an orphanage by her alcoholic mother.

Mr Boxall and his wife had gone to Brazil as missionaries. She returned with them and their four sons to the UK in 2005.

Mr Boxall runs an Anglican community church in Thamesmead, south east London.

But Miss Boxall, whose first language was Portuguese, found it difficult to settle in school.

She started staying out late and left home when she reached 18.

She was staying with her friend Ajose but Can joined them and started the bullying campaign.