Rebecca Douglas, 16, plunged the comb's pointed metal handle into Julie Sheriff's head, leaving her in a coma for five months

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A 16-year-old girl has been given a life sentence for killing a teenager with a comb.

Rebecca Douglas, who was 15 at the time, spiked 16-year-old Julie Sheriff in the head with the pintail comb's pointed metal handle.

Douglas, who had been sleeping rough at friends' houses, was ordered to serve a minimum of 10 years after being convicted of murder last month.

The Old Bailey heard that Julie, of Hackney, east London, was in the habit of wearing the pintail comb in her hair. In May last year it was taken from her hair and used as a lethal weapon in the attack in Battersea, south London.

Julie never recovered from the swelling and bleeding it caused in her brain and died almost five months later, in September.

A replica of the black comb with a spiked metal handle was shown to the jury.

A witness saw the defendant strike Julie's collarbone without much effect and then plunge the comb into her skull.

The witness heard a sound which he described as like "when you kill a goat back home".

The girls knew each other and actively disliked one another. They met in the street by chance on the fatal day.

Jonathan Turner, QC, prosecuting, said: "There seems to have been a row brewing between them as a result of malicious gossip. Two young girls arguing about gossip and about boys."

Douglas was arrested the following day near an address in Pimlico, central London, where she was staying.

She had left a BlackBerry message saying: "I see some girl that I hate, like I actually hate her with a passion, and I kind of stabbed her."

Julie's family had moved to Britain in 2006 from Sierra Leone, where her father, Raouf, was a policeman.

He told the court in a statement: "I am left to wonder why I brought her here and if I hadn't, she would still be alive.

"The result of seeing my beautiful, bubbly, brilliant daughter bedridden and in a vegetative state, has left me extremely depressed.

"The attack on my daughter was wicked, savage and senseless."

A pintail comb. Photograph: Getty Images

Judge Nicholas Cooke warned parents to be aware of the dangers to young girls of wearing such combs as fashion accessories.

He said: "We heard evidence that a pintail comb can be used as a lethal weapon. We heard it can be worn in the hair as a fashion accessory. It can be as effective a killing instrument as a stiletto knife. It is not a very nice thing to have in your hair."

He said Douglas killed Julie in "hate-filled fury" after an argument in the street about mobile phone messages.

Judge Cooke told Douglas: "Your victim died a long, lingering death some months after you attacked her."

"You took possession of the pintail comb and struck out in fury," he added.

Jonathan Kinnear QC, for Douglas, said she had had a traumatic, violent childhood, and said she had not meant to kill Julie.