Rebecca Turner
BBC North East

Our live updates have finished for the day. 

Today, two young girls were sentenced to a minimum of 15 years for the brutal murder of a vulnerable woman in her Hartlepool home.

The girls, then aged 13 and 14, inflicted more than 100 injuries on 39-year-old Angela Wrightson in December 2014.

• You can read a profile of her tragic life here.
• Discover more about the girls' dangerous friendship. 
• And read about the media's seven-month battle to be allowed to report on the case.

Image source, SWNS

We will be back with more updates from across the North East tomorrow.   

Bethan Bell
BBC News Online

Angela Wrightson's mother Maureen showed emotion in the public gallery for the first time when the judge enumerated the injuries sustained by Ms Wrightson. As he read out the details, Mrs Wrightson closed her eyes and put her hand over her face.

Both girls were blank-faced as they were told they'd serve a minimum of 15 years for the murder of Angela Wrightson, although once they'd been led away and the door shut behind them, one of them let out a despairing wail.  

Bethan Bell
BBC News Online

The younger girl's mother broke down in tears as the judge listed the teenager's crimes, while her father stared through the reflective glass separating the public seating area from the lawyers' benches and the dock.

Later, in the canteen, the younger girl's family waited by the large windows overlooking the front of the building. Not only were they waiting for the cameras, tape recorders and notebooks to be put away, but it's also a place where you can see the large security vans, which transport defendants, leave the cells.

Nobody was watching or waiting for the older girl.

The two teenagers found guilty of murdering Angela Wrightson had been drinking and the older girl had been taking prescription drugs before they went to her Hartlepool home in December, 2014.

Today the court heard up to six litres of cider from two bottles may have been drunk by the girls and Ms Wrightson.

The judge said the older girl said she had either taken tramadol, external and codeine, external or what was known by her as “Blues”.

Mr Justice Globe said: "You described yourselves as tipsy, but I am sure you were more than just tipsy. 

"Whatever you took, I am satisfied you took it during the day and it didn’t have a significant effect upon you later on."

The two girls convicted of killing Angela Wrightson would have been named by the media if they were "stable and strong-minded", the judge said.

A court order has prevented the naming of the two girls, who are now both 15, since they first appeared before magistrates in 2014.

Various media organisations asked for this order to be lifted once they were sentenced to at least 15 years, but the judge said their welfare was at risk after hearing how one of them tried to kill herself a number of times during her trial.  

Mr Justice Globe told the court: "Each defendant poses a risk of self-harm. In one case, it is a real and present danger.

"Removing anonymity is likely to exacerbate what is already a dangerous situation.

"In circumstances where I might be satisfied that both of you were stable, strong-minded defendants convicted of serious crime, the balance might arguably have been in favour of the lifting of anonymity." 

The two girls sentenced to 15 years for murdering Angela Wrightson will be held in secure children’s homes and secure training centres.

They will get a plan to rehabilitate them, which will include education, but may also involve services including mental health or substance abuse treatment.

And both girls will be allocated a youth offending team worker who will help ensure they are getting the proper care.

The number of young people convicted of murder is low. In January 2016 there were 19 young people (under 18) in secure sites sentenced to a section 90 sentence type.  

This is the sentence type typically given for those convicted of murder.

The brutal murder of 39-year-old Angela Wrightson at the hands of her teenage killers has resonated far further than just around her Hartlepool home.

• The New Zealand Herald focuses on the teenagers' snapchat selfies and their documentation of the attack, external
• The New York Daily News speaks of their 'ride home with the cops', external
• And over in Australia, the Gold Coast Bulletin brands the convicted murderers as 'devil girls', external

Image source, New York Daily News

“I will not be alone in being shocked by this" but "it remains very rare for children to commit such awful crimes" says Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield of the teenage murderers sentenced today.

“It is also true that children are not born murderers. Evidence in court tells us there were warning signs and that there would have been many opportunities for individuals, including their parents and authorities responsible for their care, to intervene to turn their lives around.

"It is a stark warning of the consequences of leaving children with troubled beginnings without the support they need.”

Here's a round-up of how the media in the North East of England are reporting the sentencing:

• The Hartlepool Mail have created a poll - asking 'Should the girls be named?' - where readers can cast their votes, external
• The Gazette has a video illustrating the sequence of events leading up to Angela Wrightson's death, external
• The Northern Echo tells of Ms Wrightson's mother's comments that she 'cannot blink away images of her daughter's battered body', external

After two girls were jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years for killing Angela Wrightson in Hartlepool, it has brought other child killers into focus:

• Mary Bell, 11, strangled two boys aged four and three in 1968, and was sentenced to life in detention after she was found guilty of manslaughter. She was released on licence in 1980 and given a new identity
• Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were convicted of killing two-year-old James Bulger in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993, when they were just 10 years old
• Three teenagers who murdered a homeless man in Liverpool for a dare were given custodial sentences in April 2013. Brothers Connor and Brandon Doran, aged 17 and 14, and Simon Evans, 14, were told they would be detained until the home secretary approved their release
• Sixteen-year-old Will Cornick was given a life sentence in 2014 after he admitted murdering Leeds teacher Ann Maguire. The judge said he had shown a "chilling lack of remorse" and ordered him to serve at least 20 years, saying he might never be released
• Fifteen-year-old Daniel Bartlam, who murdered his mother with a hammer and set her body on fire, was detained for a minimum of 16 years in 2012. Judge Julian Flaux described the killing as "grotesque" and "senseless" and said it seemed like the teenager wanted to "get away with the perfect murder"
• Five teenagers who murdered a man in a Liverpool launderette when some of them were 13 years old were sentenced in 2014

Angela Wrightson's neighbour says she drank a lot but was harmless and was "almost like the street's burglar alarm".

Speaking about the 39-year-old, who was found murdered in her Hartlepool home, her neighbour Michael Holbeach says: "She used to sit in the doorstep most of the time.

"If I had a good pay week - I drive a truck part-time - I would go down and buy her a bottle of cider and 20 fags.

"She was almost like the street's burglar alarm in a way. If one of the slightly more troubled people was giving one of the kids a bit of a hard time she'd shoo them away, even boozed you know she was fairly responsible.

"She would hand out lollies to some of the kids when she got her pension or dole or whatever it was and she was harmless."

Two independent reviews will be taking place following the death of a vulnerable Hartlepool woman - one regarding the two teenagers found guilty of her murder, and one regarding Angela Wrightson herself. 

Independent serious case reviews are being undertaken by the Hartlepool Safeguarding Children Board into the two teenagers

And an independent safeguarding adult review is being undertaken by the Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board regarding Ms Wrightson.

Cleveland Police released this CCTV footage of Angela Wrightson and the two teenagers convicted of murdering her from the night of her death.  

Clive Coleman
BBC legal correspondent

At the heart of the dispute over the reporting of this deeply distressing case lies the core principle that the jury room and the minds of each individual juror can and should be protected from the polluting effects of any prejudicial material published by anyone online or elsewhere.  

It remains the view of the judiciary and the attorney general that exposure to such material risks prejudicing a fair trial for the defendants.  

The great fear is that it can influence the jury but cannot be tested in court.  

Jurors are warned not to search the internet about the case, and have been imprisoned for contempt if they do so.   

However in the age of smartphones and online file sharing, jurors can instantly access and be directed towards prejudicial material on the high-profile trial they are in the process of hearing.  

The idea of sealing their minds from such material is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile with the principle of open justice. 

Bethan Bell
BBC News Online

The older girl convicted of murdering Angela Wrightson had a troubled and disorganised upbringing, living in turn with her mother, father, and at a number of foster homes.

She was too unsettled to cope in mainstream school and was sent to a pupil referral unit.

The court heard she had a history of self-harming, using anything with a sharp edge to slash not just her arms and legs but even her face. She was also known to have smashed her own head into walls.

She both witnessed and experienced domestic violence, being taken to A&E 24 times for different injuries. She had her fingers broken by her mother, who suffered from severe psychiatric illness and had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

The day she murdered Angela Wrightson, she visited her mother who told her to kill herself.

Bethan Bell
BBC News Online

Some of the crime scene photographs were deemed 'too distressing' for the jury to see during the trial of two schoolgirls who murdered Angela Wrightson.

Bloodied handprints were smeared on the walls, and blood was also found on the ceiling.

A photo was released of this TV the girls used to attack her with:

Image source, Cleveland Police

More details of the horrific injuries sustained by Angela Wrightson were read out in court.

Mr Justice Globe said she suffered 70 separate slash injuries and 54 separate blunt force injuries - 71 were to her head and face.

He said there were 22 deflection injuries to the back of her hands, wrists and arms as she tried to fend off the two girls.

"As she did so, you fractured three of her fingers," he added.

"Those defensive injuries support what you (the younger girl) said to one of your friends the following day about Angie pleading with you to stop hitting her."

Rebecca Turner
BBC North East

Angela Wrightson was murdered in her home in December 2014.

Today, her two teenage killers were sentenced to life.

But why is this happening more than two years after the attack?

Well, the girls were aged just 13 and 14 at the time, and their age and vulnerability has lead to a number of complications in the case.

Here's a timeline of events:

• In the early hours of Tuesday 9 December 2014, two teenage girls call 999 for a lift home.
• Later that morning, Angela Wrightson's body is found in her blood-splattered Hartlepool home nearby.
• The same day, the two girls are arrested.
• The girls appear in court on 11 December. 
• Their trial starts in July 2015 but on the third day, Mr Justice Globe is alerted to what he called "an avalanche of prejudicial comment" on social media.
• Late on 3 July 2015, he effectively orders the media to remove every comment about the trial from any news article and social media post.
• On 7 July 2015, the jury is discharged and proceedings are halted at Teesside Crown Court.  
• The BBC appeals against this decision, and embarks on what turns out to be seven-month battle for the right to report on the case.
• On 16 February 2016, the trial begins again with a new jury.

And today, on the 7 April 2016, the two girls are convicted of Angela Wrightson's murder and sentenced to 15 years each.

Details of the impact the murder of Angela Wrightson had on the two schoolgirl killers can be revealed today.

Since the night of the attack on Ms Wrightson, the older girl has hallucinated, waking up sweating and screaming, seeing blood on the walls.

She hears the phantom laughter of young girls, and thinks men are shouting at her through air vents in the ceiling, as well as through the shower head. 

Bethan Bell
BBC News Online

For two young teenagers the night of 8 December 2014 began like many others.

But by the next morning the two girls would be murderers, having taken their time to batter a vulnerable woman to death with a variety of weapons. The attack lasted for seven hours.

Then aged 13 and 14, the pair spent the early evening roaming the streets of Hartlepool drinking strong cider, smoking pilfered cigarettes, and taking selfies.

Image source, Cleveland Police

Despite the drinking and drug-taking - the older had also taken illicit prescription medicine - they were not atypical teenagers.

Click here to read how two teenage friends became real 'partners in crime'.