Sharon Louise Carr (born 1979), also known as "The Devil's Daughter", is a British woman who, in June 1992, aged 12, murdered 18-year-old Katie Rackliff at random as the latter walked home from a nightclub in Camberley, Surrey, England.
[2] Friends said that she was a sociable girl who preferred the company of older boys and that she occasionally showed flashes of aggression.
[3] In the early hours of 7 June 1992, Carr randomly stabbed 18-year-old apprentice hairdresser Katie "Kate"[5] Rackliff to death as the latter walked home from Ragamuffins nightclub in Camberley.
[7] Rackliff's body was taken by Carr and some accomplices and driven to Farnborough, where she was dragged along a road and then dumped by a cemetery wall.
[3] On 7 June 1994, the second anniversary of Rackliff's murder, Carr attacked a 13-year-old fellow pupil with a knife, for no apparent reason, in the toilets at Collingwood College Comprehensive School.
[4][2][3][11] Carr stabbed the victim in the back, causing a lung puncture; the attack was stopped when five students entered the toilets and intervened.
[4] Carr did not return home that day and was found on school grounds the next morning;[1] after being arrested, she told officers that she enjoyed stabbing cats and had beheaded a dog.
[7] In September 1995, she was transferred to Bullwood Hall young offenders' institution, where it was thought her aggressive and sexualised behaviour could be better managed.
[7] Soon after her transfer to Bullwood Hall, staff discovered that Carr was talking about the killing of Katie Rackliff to friends and family on the telephone and in her diary.
[2][11] Her diaries were found to contain details of her sexual excitement at the thought of Rackliff's death, and Carr also commented that she felt "jealous" of her victim and remarked about the devil and the forces which motivated her.
[2] Detectives questioned Carr on the murder, and she confessed to the killing, admitting that she had repeatedly stabbed Rackliff.
[3] Police found that Carr had a long history of cruelty to animals, having once decapitated a dog with a spade, and concluded that she probably had a form of psychopathic disorder.
[10][6] Carr continued to write her boasts about the murder even after being questioned by the police, and in January 1996 gave a further series of confessions to prison officers that she had a 'crush' on.
[2][3] The jury had deliberated for five hours before reaching a unanimous guilty verdict, choosing to convict her for murder and not manslaughter.
[12][10][13][14] The media reported extensively on the historical conviction of such a young murderer, highlighting her obsession with death and violence.
[7] While in Broadmoor, she continued to assault staff and other residents and admitted wanting to kill a fellow inmate by slitting her throat.
[7][9] Category A prison supervisors at Bronzefield reported that Carr was still evidencing incidents of volatile relationships and was continuing to have paranoid thoughts.
[16] This led to renewed media interest in the school and the Carr case, with allegations being made that there was a culture of problems at Collingwood.
[16] In 2010, Carr's case was again discussed in the press when another British child, 15-year-old Lorraine Thorpe, became Britain's youngest convicted female double murderer.