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Loner jailed for schoolgirl's murder

A jury found Craig Smith guilty of beating the 13-year-old before shooting her with an air rifle and strangling her.

Smith, who was unemployed, was given a life sentence for what the judge said was the "callous and brutal" murder of a vulnerable young girl.

Mr Justice Maurice Kay told Smith he was a very dangerous young man who had no sense of remorse for the terrible crime he had committed.

He said he would recommend to the Home Secretary Jack Straw that he should serve a "very long time" in prison.

Smith waylaid Claire as she made her way to school from her home in the village of Eaton, near Congleton, Cheshire.

Her body was found five days later in the fast-flowing river Dane.

Smith, from Buglawton, near Congleton, had denied murder.

'Killed within minutes'

He said he had met Claire on the morning she disappeared in June last year, but said she had left him to go to Dane Valley High School.

But after the 10-day trial at Chester Crown Court, the jury returned a unanimous verdict.

Claire met Smith as she walked from her home along a footpath on the A536 road between Macclesfield and Congleton.

Patrick Harrington, QC, prosecuting, said that within minutes, Smith had beaten her, shot her and strangled her to death.

He said Smith tried to dispose of the body by throwing it into the river, then returned home and behaved for the rest of the day as if "nothing extraordinary had happened".

But the jury was told Smith had given some clues as to what he had done by showing a "preoccupation" with going back to the scene, where he had been seen at least twice during the afternoon.

Mr Harrington said that five days before Claire's death on 18 June, Smith had told his parents he had heard a rumour that he had killed a young girl, when there had been no such rumour.

Smith had been "living out a prophecy", he said.

'Brutal, senseless murder'

Smith said he denied seeing Claire because he had heard she had gone missing and did not want anything to do with it.

At the time of her death, Claire and her younger sister had been taken into care, and she had been living with her prospective adoptive parents.

She had been neither physically nor emotionally mature, but had been a friendly girl who trusted people, Mr Harrington said.

Her murder had been "brutal, senseless and without any motive the prosecution have been able to discern".

Relevant Stories

Sinister signs from Claire's killer (18 May 99 | UK)
Man denies strangling schoolgirl (12 May 99 | UK)
Murdered girl 'knew accused man' (06 May 99 | UK)
Man 'beat, shot and strangled' schoolgirl (04 May 99 | UK)
Man on trial for schoolgirl murder (04 May 99 | UK)

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