Girls appeal over Aimee verdicts

Aimee Wellock had an undiagnosed heart condition

Three teenagers who were found guilty of the manslaughter of a 15-year-old girl are challenging their convictions at London's Court of Appeal.

Aimee Wellock, 15, suffered from an undiagnosed heart condition and died near her home in Bradford after she was attacked by the group on 7 June 2005.

Claire Carey, 18, and two girls aged 15 and 17, who cannot be named, were each sentenced to two years in detention.

But their lawyers have attacked their convictions as "unsafe".

Carey was also sentenced to two years for affray to run concurrently. Her co-defendants were given 18-month concurrent sentences for affray.

'Non-foreseeable injury'

During a trial at Leeds Crown Court in September, the jury heard Aimee heart failed due to the strain of the attack.

But Carey's counsel, Michael Harrison, told the appeal court judges that the jury "could not have found that it was foreseeable that Aimee Wellock was vulnerable to heart failure" from the incident which took place.

During the nine-day trial in Leeds, the court heard the three teenagers had all been drinking at the Chellow Dene beauty spot in Allerton.

When they came across Aimee and her friends, they bullied and intimidated them before attacking them.

Two youths on motorbikes intervened and told Aimee and her friends to run away, but as she fled for home Aimee collapsed and died.