Angela Wrightson murder accused admits lying to police

The court has heard Angela Wrightson was found dead in her blood-spattered living room with more than 100 injuries

A girl accused of murdering a vulnerable woman has told a court she lied to police.

She and another girl are accused of fatally assaulting Angela Wrightson, who was found battered at her home in Hartlepool in December 2014.

The girls, then 13 and 14, deny murder. The older has admitted manslaughter.

When she was arrested, the younger girl told police she had tried to stop her friend attacking Ms Wrightson, but later told jurors she did not.

She also told officers she had checked whether Ms Wrightson was breathing and had tried to pick her up, but that the 39-year-old's "body had gone floppy".

Laughing and drinking

However, she told the jury she had not tried to stop the attack at any point, and claimed she "had not known what was going on".

When asked by the prosecution why she refused to give police the means to access her mobile phone, she said: "Because I don't like people going through my phone".

Earlier, Leeds Crown Court was shown photographs of the two defendants taken on the phone while they were at Ms Wrightson's house.

In one picture, the pair were putting their fingers up at the camera and, in others, were laughing and drinking from a bottle of cider.

The younger girl also denied trying to destroy evidence by washing the boots she had been wearing the night Ms Wrightson was killed.

She said she had not tried to clean blood off them and did not know why she had blood on her socks.

The trial continues.