Mary Bell Murders 2 At 10 Yrs Old

Mary Bell was a ten year old living in England when she would murder two children

According to court documents Mary Bell would strangle four year old Martin Brown in an abandoned home causing his death. The murder took place a day before Mary’s eleventh birthday. After killing Martin Brown Bell would return to the crime scene to show off the body to her friend Norma Bell however the two would be told to leave the crime scene

Months later Mary Bell would claim her second victim when she and Norma Bell would murder three year old Brian Howe. The little boy would die in a similar manner to Martin Brown.

Mary Bell would be questioned by police however she would be released due to lack of evidence as she pointed the police to an unnamed older boy

However soon after Mary Bell would confess to her mother about what she had done

Mary Bell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to an indefinite prison sentence.

Mary Bell would serve twelve years before she would be paroled. Once she was released the England Government would give her a new name. When she would have a child that child would also be given a new name and when that child eventually had her own child once again was granted a new name

Mary Bell Case

Mary Flora Bell, aged 11, was sentenced to life detention at Newcastle upon Tyne Assizes yesterday after being found guilty of the manslaughter of two little boys. But the jury said she was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time and found her not guilty of murder.

A second schoolgirl, Norma Joyce Bell, aged 13, unrelated, but living next door to Mary in Whitehouse Road, Scotswood, Newcastle, was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter on both charges.

Mary broke down and wept as she heard the verdicts reached by the jury after a retirement of three hours and 40 minutes. Her mother and grandmother, sitting on the benches behind her, also wept.

Grave risk

Announcing the sentence, Mr Justice Cusack described Mary as “dangerous” and said there was “a very grave risk to other children if she is not closely watched.”

The two victims were 4-year-old Martin Brown, of St Margaret’s Road, Scotswood, who was found dead in a derelict house on May 25, and 3-year-old Brian Howe, of Whitehouse Road, Scotswood, whose body was found on waste ground near his home two months later. The two girls had denied all the charges.

Dr David Westbury, a Home Office psychiatrist, told the jury that Mary had a psychopathic disorder within the meaning of the Mental Health Act, Asked by the judge if he knew of a place where she could go, he replied, “No”. Questioned by Mr Harvey Robson for Mary, Dr Westbury said he thought her period of treatment should last “some years”.

Unhappy thing

The Judge said: “It is a most unhappy thing that in all the resources of this country it appears there is no hospital available which is suitable for the accommodation of this girl.”

Dr Westbury’s inquiries indicated that the matter was the responsibility of the health department of the Ministry of Social Security said the judge. But the department “require time to consider what they are to do and no specific time is indicated.”

He continued: “It is an appalling thing that with a child as young as this one, one has to take into consideration such matters. I am not entirely unsympathetic but anxious as I am to do everything for her benefit, my primary duty is to protect other people.

“There is a very grave risk to other children if she is not closely watched and every conceivable step taken to see that she doesn’t do again what she has been found guilty of. In the case of a child of this age, no question of imprisonment arises. I have power to order a sentence of detention and it seems to me that no other method of dealing with her in the circumstances is suitable.”

Life detention, he said, did not mean that the person concerned was kept in custody indefinitely or for the rest of their natural lives. The position could be considered form time to time.

Turning to Norma, the Judge said he was anxious about her future. He hoped now that the trial was over, “that nobody will attempt to discuss the matter with her. It seems to be in the interests of this child that the matters we have had to deal with should be put behind her”.

Life detention for girl of 11 | Crime | The Guardian

Mary Bell: Britain’s Youngest Female Killer

Mary Flora Bell (born 26 May 1957) is an English woman who, as a juvenile, killed two preschool-age boys in Scotswood, an inner suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1968. Bell committed her first killing when she was ten years old. In both instances, Bell informed her victim that he had a sore throat, which she would massage before proceeding to strangle him.

Convicted of manslaughter in December 1968 when she was just 11, she became Britain’s youngest female killer and was diagnosed with a psychopathic personality disorder prior to her trial. Released in 1980 at age 23 with a lifelong anonymity order, Mary Bell has lived under multiple pseudonyms ever since.

Early Life: Abuse, Neglect, and Warning Signs
Mary Bell’s mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Bell (née McCrickett), was a well-known local prostitute who was often absent from the family home, frequently travelling to Glasgow to work. Mary was her second child, born when Betty was just 17 years old.

Mary was an unwanted and neglected child. According to her aunt, within minutes of Mary’s birth, her mother resented hospital staff attempting to place her daughter in her arms, shouting: “Take the thing away from me!”

As a baby and toddler, Mary frequently suffered injuries. On one occasion in about 1960, Betty dropped her daughter from a first-floor window; on another, she plied her daughter with sleeping pills. She is also known to have once sold Mary through an adoption agency to a mentally unstable woman, requiring her older sister to travel across Newcastle to reclaim her.

By the mid-1960s, Betty — who worked as a dominatrix — is alleged to have begun allowing and/or encouraging several of her clients to sexually abuse Mary in sadomasochistic sessions. Mary’s mother actively participated, including sessions where she blindfolded her daughter with a stocking before restraining her hands.

At home and school, Mary exhibited numerous signs of disturbed behaviour, including sudden mood swings and chronic bed wetting. She is known to have frequently fought with other children and to have attempted to strangle or suffocate her classmates on several occasions. On one occasion, she attempted to block the trachea of a young girl with sand.

The First Warning: May 11, 1968
Two weeks before the first murder, the violence escalated. On Saturday 11 May 1968, a three-year-old boy was discovered wandering dazed and bleeding near St. Margaret’s Road. He told police he had been playing with Mary Bell and Norma Bell atop a disused air raid shelter when he had been pushed 7 ft from the roof.

The same evening, parents of three small girls complained that both Mary and Norma had attempted to strangle their children in a sandpit. Norma admitted to police: “Mary went to one of the girls and said, ‘What happens if you choke someone; do they die?’ Then Mary put both hands ’round the girl’s throat and squeezed. The girl started to go purple.”

Due to their age, both girls were simply given a warning. No further action was taken.

The Murder of Martin Brown – May 25, 1968
On 25 May 1968, the day before her 11th birthday, Bell strangled four-year-old Martin Brown in an upstairs bedroom of a derelict house at 85 St. Margaret’s Road. She is believed to have committed this crime alone.

Brown’s body was discovered at 3:30 p.m. lying on his back with arms stretched above his head. Aside from specks of blood and foam around his mouth, no signs of violence were visible. A post-mortem could not determine cause of death, and an inquest returned an open verdict.

As a workman attempted CPR, Mary Bell and Norma Bell appeared at the doorway. Both were shooed out, then knocked on Martin’s aunt’s door: “One of your sisters’ bairns has just had an accident. We think it’s Martin, but we can’t tell because there’s blood all over him.”

The next day, on her birthday, Mary and Norma broke into a nursery and left four handwritten notes claiming responsibility. One read: “I murder SO That I may come back”; another: “WE did murder martain brown fuckof you bastard.” Police dismissed them as a childish prank.

The Murder of Brian Howe – July 31, 1968
On the afternoon of 31 July 1968, three-year-old Brian Howe was last seen playing outside his house with Mary Bell and Norma Bell. At 11:10 p.m., his body was found between two concrete blocks on waste ground known as “Tin Lizzie.”

The coroner concluded Brian had died of strangulation. The killer had squeezed his nostrils closed with one hand while gripping his throat with the other. Numerous puncture wounds had been inflicted to the child’s legs before death, sections of his hair had been cut from his head, his genitals had been partially mutilated, and a crude attempt had been made to carve the initial “M” into his stomach. The relatively small amount of force led the coroner to conclude the killer was another child.

A pair of broken scissors lay close to his feet — a detail only police knew.

Investigation and Arrest
Over 100 detectives were assigned. When questioned, Mary was markedly more observant and taciturn than Norma. Mary then made a fatal slip: she stated she remembered seeing a boy with a small pair of scissors, “one leg was broken or bent.” This self-incriminating statement convinced Detective Chief Inspector James Dobson that Mary was the killer.

On August 7, 1968, both girls were charged. Mary Bell, age 11, and Norma Bell, 13 (no relation), stood trial at Newcastle Assizes in December 1968.

Trial: Diminished Responsibility
Bell was convicted of manslaughter in relation to both killings, with her actions judged to have been committed under diminished responsibility. Her alleged accomplice, Norma Joyce Bell, was acquitted of all charges.

Psychiatrists testified Bell displayed classic psychopathic traits: lack of empathy, manipulative behavior, and sadistic fantasies. She was sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure — the juvenile equivalent of life.

Life After Prison: Where Is Mary Bell Now?
Bell was released from custody in 1980, at the age of 23. A lifelong court order granted her anonymity, which has since been extended to protect the identity of her daughter and granddaughter. She has since lived under a series of pseudonyms.

In 1998, she collaborated with Gitta Sereny on “Cries Unheard,” breaking her silence for payment, which caused public outrage. She reportedly lives in the south of England, has a daughter born in 1984, and became a grandmother in the 2000s.

The anonymity order remains one of the most stringent in UK legal history — revealing her current identity or location is a contempt of court.

Why the Mary Bell Case Still Matters
Youngest female killer: Still Britain’s youngest at time of offense
Nature vs nurture: Extreme abuse vs psychopathy debate
Juvenile justice: Led to reforms in how UK handles child killers
Media ethics: The 1998 book payment sparked laws on profiting from crime