Teenage girls who tortured and murdered a vulnerable woman will NEVER be named
A High Court judge's ruling that will keep the identities of two teenage girls secret for the rest of their lives after they murdered a vulnerable woman in her own home was branded 'shocking' and 'disappointing' today.
The killers were 13 and 14 when they put 39-year-old Angela Wrightson through a horrific five-hour ordeal at her home in Hartlepool.
The pair, who were in the hands of the care system, rained blow after blow on her using a ceramic vase, TV, printer, picture frame, shovel, glass ornament and kettle.
They paused mid-slaughter to pose for selfies, which they uploaded to Snapchat, while dancing to music videos and joking with friends on the phone.
The murderers were handed life sentences at Leeds Crown Court in 2016 and told they must serve a minimum of 15 years behind bars.
At the end of the trial, judge Mr Justice Globe refused to lift reporting restrictions preventing the media from identifying the killers, due to their vulnerability.
Their anonymity automatically expired when they turned 18, leading their lawyers to ask a High Court judge in October last year to grant them lifelong anonymity.
In a ruling published today, Mrs Justice Tipples granted the pair - known only as D and F - permanent injunctions, preventing them from being identified.
Hartlepool MP Mike Hill blasted the decision, telling MailOnline it was 'a matter of public safety' they be unmasked.
Mr Hill said: 'The murder of Angela Wrightson shook Hartlepool as the details were made public and this shock still resonates today.
'To discover that the perpetrators of such a gruesome and heinous crime have been granted life-long anonymity is frankly shocking and disappointing.
'While I understand the need to protect the identities of minors, once these criminals are of age, in most circumstances people should be made aware of their crime as a matter of public safety.
'The same level of privacy would not be extended to murderers who commit their crimes as adults.
'I know many people in Hartlepool will be as disappointed as I am by this decision today.'
The girls join notorious killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993, and Mary Bell - who killed two young children in 1968 - in having lifelong anonymity.
Similar orders have also been made for Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley who was jailed for giving him a false alibi, the so-called Edlington brothers, who tortured two young boys in South Yorkshire in 2009, and Britain's youngest terrorist - known only as RXG - who instructed an Australian jihadist to launch attacks on Anzac Day in 2015.
CCTV shows the girls relaxed as they returned to the house at around 2am following a 'break'
Pictured: A shovel used in the brutal attack
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