Shortly before 5pm, Alison Rough ran up a quiet cul-de-sac in suburban York screaming for help. Her daughter, Katie Sharon Rough, lay in a field, just 10 minutes from her home, with lacerations to her neck and chest.

“Are you OK?” asked one passerby.

“No, no, she’s my little girl,” said Rough.

Katie was taken to York hospital where she was confirmed dead at 5.45pm. Her death was the focus of national attention, with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn expressing condolences in the House of Commons. Locally, the community rallied together and within a couple of weeks a fundraising campaign to help the family with expenses had exceeded its goal of £25,000.

The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, sat by Katie’s coffin all night before the funeral, where several young children wore rainbow-coloured bows following Katie’s parents’ request for mourners to dress formally but with a colourful twist.

During an emotional eulogy at York Minster, her uncle Steven Rough paid tribute to Katie’s “love of bacon, her sassy nature, creativity [and] love of playing outdoors”.

“She was often playing outside in the garden, getting dirty with the slugs and the snails,” he said.

Her white coffin, pulled in a carriage by two white horses with red plumes, was decorated with Dr Seuss characters, and the funeral notice bore a quote sometimes attributed to Dr Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”

A 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and has been detained for psychiatric assessment in a specialist hospital under the Mental Health Act.

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