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Teen love, teen hate: girl gang takes savage revenge

17-year-old's horrific fireball death highlights the rise of the feral young females

Debra Carne had been with her new boyfriend only a few days before he told her he loved her. The 17-year-old spent the night with him but the following day they split up after rowing. Two days passed before he called Carne and begged her to meet him. Within 15 minutes of getting into his car she was dead. Her killers were two teenage girls.

Last week, the pair, the boyfriend and another teenager were convicted of taking part in the killing, a crime that has shocked the local community, left detectives stunned by its brutality and reopened the debate about the increasing levels of violence among young women.

'What beggars belief is how anyone can take a life in such an horrific and premeditated manner over something so trivial,' says Detective Superintendent Win Bernard, the man in charge of the case. 'Teenagers fall out all the time over relationships. For it to culminate in the death of a young girl is just bizarre'.

Debra lived in in a small flat with her mother, Heather, in Sible Hedingham in Essex, a quiet Tudor village with a non-existent crime rate. She left school, where she was known as a quiet girl, and worked briefly at a local joinery factory, but had given it up and was looking for a new job.

Her boyfriend, Steven Wood, then 20, had a reputation as something of a 'bad boy' and was living at a hostel in Braintree catering for troubled teenagers.

The pair had met in local pubs and Debra had known that Wood had only recently split up with his previous girlfriend, 17-year-old Nicole Hollinshead. Having learnt that Wood had spent the night with Carne, Hollinshead sent him 24 increasingly furious text messages within the space of a few hours. She also sent Debra a series of abusive texts. Carne called Hollinshead and insisted that Wood had made all the running but the messages continued. Carne lodged a complaint with the police.

The next day Wood and Hollinshead resumed their relationship and made their way to the hostel to see their friends, Kerry Bauer, 17 and Emma Last, 18, also residents at the hostel.

The three girls were good friends, bonded together by a mutual desire to make the best of their difficult lives. Bauer and Last were particularly close and formed a sexual relationship.

That night, while smoking cannabis and drinking beer, the four hatched a plan to get their own back on Carne. The girls began talking, Wood listened in. Despite his reputation those around him believe he was intimidated by the girls and would have gone along with anything they said.

Another tenant at the hostel, overhead the conversation. 'Emma threw a bottle at Steven and told him to fill it with petrol. She said they would chuck it over her [Debra] and set fire to it.' Another resident heard Last say: 'Don't tell anyone but we are gonna get someone.'

While Hollinshead stayed behind to provide an alibi, Wood, Last and Bauer set off for Debra's home. Wood filled the Sunny Delight bottle with petrol, dropped Bauer and Last in a remote lay-by and then carried on to Debra's village, less than a mile away. It took just 12 seconds for Wood to convince her to come out and meet him. Her mother told her not to go but she was insistent and left the house soon afterwards.

Wood then drove Debra to the lay-by and remained in the car as the two girls ambushed her.

Bauer described what happened next: 'I opened the car door and began to pull her out. I was pulling her across the lay-by by her hair and Emma kicked her a couple of times. I got across the lay-by and Emma was punching her randomly with both hands. Then I let go of her hair and she sort of stood up and stepped back slightly. Then I pushed her, and she fell through a hole in the bushes.

'Then Emma told me to get the petrol in the bottle and I was going to give it to Emma and she told me to throw it at Debra.

'I squeezed the bottle and it went on her from the waist down. She said "Oh God, no" and I said to Emma "Let's go" and turned round.

'Emma was right in the bush at that point. I turned to go to the car and I heard a yelp and a whoosh. I turned round and saw a ball of flames. I felt heat on the side of my face. I just saw a body falling. I froze. I did not know what to do. Then I heard Emma say "run" so I ran.'

Sitting in his car, Wood saw flames in the rear view mirror and heard what he thought was a tree crackling. They drove back to the hostel, took showers and changed into clean clothes. With Hollinshead they then drove to a field 30 miles away. They burned Debra's handbag and destroyed all the clothes they had been wearing at the time of the killing.

An hour or so later Debra's still-burning body was found by two passing motorists who saw flames in the bushes.

The murder took place in July 2002 but a trial last year had to be abandoned after forensic experts could not agree on whether Debra had been alive at the time she had been set alight or whether she had been strangled first.

A second trial ended last week. Bauer was convicted of murder. Wood was found guilty of manslaughter but acquitted of murder. Hollinshead was also acquitted of murder and found guilty of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm. Last admitted murder.

The four will be sentenced on Wednesday.

· This article was amended on Thursday July 17 2008 to remove the names of two witnesses.

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