Schoolgirls who murdered Angela Wrightson sentenced
Both teenagers must serve a minimum of 15 years
Pair convicted of torturing and murdering vulnerable woman
Mother says she 'can't blink away image' of dead body
The judge sentencing two girls for murdering Angela Wrightson has risen to consider their jail terms.
Mr Justice Globe will return at 12:50 to give his ruling on whether their anonymity should be lifted also.
One of the last images taken of Angela Wrightson before she was murdered was released by police.
During their trial, jurors heard the two girls who killed her had visited Ms Wrightson, an alcoholic known as "Alco Ange", on a number of occasions because she would buy them alcohol and cigarettes.
This is Angela at a shop on the day she died in December 2014:
Image source, Cleveland PoliceHer teenage killers being sentenced today.
One of the children found guilty of murdering Angela Wrightson must not be treated like an adult, a court has heard.
"Children are not the same as adults as has long been recognised" John Elvidge QC, mitigating for the younger girl, says.
He said that when looking for answers as to why Ms Wrightson's murder happened, it should be remembered that "whatever was said and done, was done by a 13-year-old girl".
Quote MessageShe spoke as a child, understood as a child and thought as a child.
A number of media organisations are to apply to the judge to lift a ban on the girls’ identities.
Mr Justice Globe has been asked to allow the media to report on who the two schoolgirls are.
A similar application led to James Bulger's killers being named in 1993.
Hartlepool Borough Council is to argue against the application and Cleveland Police has also objected to the move.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe case of two girls convicted of murdering Angela Wrightson is more complicated than simply good versus evil, the court has heard.
Jamie Hill QC, mitigating, said:
Quote MessageHere we have two deeply troubled children who found themselves in a sad and unpredictable world, which was Angela Wrightson's refuge.
Quote MessageOne life's been lost and several others have been ruined. I ask you to look at this particular child not as somebody necessarily evil, but damaged and who put herself in a very strange place.
Quote MessageWhatever the trigger, she knows she had to be punished. Maybe she wasn't a fully functioning person at that particular time in her life."
The older girl convicted of murdering Angela Wrightson had a "terrible, violent and unstable upbringing", the court has heard.
Jamie Hill QC, mitigating, says the 15-year-old has "great difficulty forming relationships with other children as well as adults".
He said her actions should be "viewed a consequence of being unable to control her emotions", but added "nobody will really know what trigger for this violence was".
One of Angela Wrightson's murderers "lacks intelligence about how people could die", a court has heard.
Jamie Hill QC, mitigating, said of the older girl convicted of murder: "Her low IQ means she's somebody who tends to act on impulse."
He also asked for a reduction in sentence because she has some "abnormality of mind".
The older girl who murdered Angela Wrightson is sorry for what she did, her defence barrister says.
Jamie Hill QC, mitigating, told the court the girl "does express sorrow and remorse", and that she "knows it can't be put right".
He added: "She understands now, the consequences of her actions much greater than when she was 14 years old and out of control in December 2014."
In a fight by the media to report on the Angela Wrightson murder trial, Lord Justice Leveson likened the case to the murder of James Bulger due to the level of feeling in the community.
Image source, Getty ImagesPolice have defended the fact they did not notice two teenage girls were covered in blood when they picked them up in the early hours of the morning.
When the girls, now aged 15, called police for a lift home, having earlier been reported missing, officers did not know Angela Wrightson had been murdered, Det Ch Supt McPhillips, of Cleveland Police, said.
He said they were known to police and were regarded as vulnerable.
Image source, Cleveland Police"It was four o'clock on a December morning, so it was dark," he said.
"The officer picked them up, their demeanour was fine, they were laughing and joking.
"There would be no particular reason for him to check their clothing to see whether it was blood-stained hence, of course, he wouldn't notice the blood."
He said it was "easy with hindsight" to think officers should have noticed one girl had a cut eye and both had blood on them.
Hanging out with "other negative anti-social peers" can be a crucial risk factor in offenders, forensic psychologist Simone Fox says.
Speaking to the Victoria Derbyshire show, she said many factors including peer groups can contribute to someone's behaviour.
"Someone who's not doing well at school, they're dropping out, they're truanting, starting to hang out with other negative anti-social peers, that's got a really important role to play on your behaviour," she said.
Image source, Cleveland PoliceThe two teenage girls who murdered Angela Wrightson were known to each other, taking selfies together in the back of a police van on the night of the attack.
The court also heard how the younger girl would tell the older one to do things "like give her my Facebook password" and "would sometimes make me go out at night when I didn't want to".
The level of violence combined with the age and gender of Angela Wrightson's killers makes this case "extremely rare", an expert says.
Dr Simone Fox, a forensic psychologist who works with young people, says: "Girls offend far less than boys and this extreme nature makes it very rare."
There are two official reviews into this case - one looking at the care and supervision that was offered to the two girls, who were aged just 13 and 14 at the time of the attack. They were both in the care system.
Speaking to the Victoria Derbyshire show, Dr Fox says there are a large number of risk factors for children who have a "poor attachment to a parent or caregiver".
"Family is really important to a young child, so we've got a large number of risk factors," she added.
Fiona Trott
BBC News
The sentencing hearing of the two young girls has started.
Due to the age of the defendants, the judge and lawyers are not wearing wigs. The court is packed.
The 15-year-old defendants are listening closely. Adult mediators are explaining to them what's happening.
Megan Paterson
Reporter, BBC Look North
Reviews are being carried out after two girls murdered vulnerable alcoholic Angela Wrightson in Hartlepool.
The pair were under supervision at the time they brutally beat her to death in December 2104.
Ms Wrightson was also known to social services and police, and her care will also be assessed.
Tens of people, including "Mad Molly", "Goofy" and "Cider Bill" would go to Ms Wrightson's home in Stephen Street in Hartlepool at all hours of the day and night. They would not bother knocking.
Groups of youths started dropping by first thing in the morning so she could buy them cigarettes. Underage drinkers congregated in her living room and on the proviso she could share their drink, she would buy them alcohol from the local shop - where three-litre bottles of 7.5% cider can be bought for about £3.
Sometimes she called a neighbour "to make the kids scatter" when they ignored her pleas to leave.
Image source, GoogleOfficers "did do quite a lot to try and help" Angela Wrightson before her murder, police say.
The 39-year-old was "well known to a range of services including mental health, social care and, obviously, the police", Det Ch Supt Peter McPhillips said.
A police community support officer had been allocated to work with her and visit her regularly.
Hartlepool Borough Council chief executive Gill Alexander said: "Incidents like this are extremely rare but we need to do everything possible to try to better understand what motivated the two children to behave as they did."
The girls, aged 13 and 14 at the time, battered Angela Wrightson, 39, to death in Hartlepool in December 2014.
Det Ch Supt Peter McPhillips said they were "laughing and joking", so there was no reason for officers to check for signs of blood.
The pair were convicted on Tuesday and will be sentenced today.
When the girls, now aged 15, called police for a lift home, having earlier been reported missing, officers did not know Ms Wrightson had been murdered, Det Ch Supt McPhillips, of Cleveland Police, said.
Two girls have been found guilty of murdering a woman who was killed in her Hartlepool home.
It's a crime that sparked such abusive comments on Facebook that a judge feared the girls could not have a fair hearing.
Those comments were described by the prosecution as a "virtual lynching mob".
He scrapped the case and ordered a retrial for the following year - leading to a seven-month fight by the media to be allowed to report on it.
Click here to see the fight to be able to report on the case
The court heard graphic details of how the two girls had attacked the 39-year-old.
Blood-stained pictures of weapons used in the attack, which lasted more than five hours, were released by police.
Image source, Cleveland PoliceThey included a wooden stick laced with screws, a television set, a shovel, ornaments, a picture frame and a kettle.
The court heard Ms Wrightson was forcibly restrained while the pair "battered and tortured" her in a "sustained and brutal" attack.
Two 15-year-old girls who "battered and tortured" a woman to death in her own home are to be sentenced for her murder.
Angela Wrightson, 39, was found in her living room with more than 100 injuries - including 80 to her face - in Hartlepool in December 2014.
Image source, FacebookThe girls, then aged 13 and 14, used a variety of weapons including a coffee table and a computer printer.
They then rang police for a lift home before taking a selfie in the back of the van, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Both girls, who cannot be named, were in tears upon conviction.