13-Year-Old Jailed For Murdering Smethwick Woman

17 April 2015, 17:20 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A 13-year-old has been jailed for murdering a 47-year-old woman in Smethwick by punching her and stamping on her head.

The judge has decided to name Petri Kurti despite his age because of the seriousness of his crimes.

47-year-old Glynis Bensley was walking home from the pub last September when she was attacked, punched and stamped on by Kurti.  The court heard it's likely she died very quickly.

20-year-old Zoheb Majid was also there during the attack and has been jailed for 10 years for manslaughter and robbery.

Their attack was caught on CCTV:

Outside court Detective Chief Inspector Sam Ridding spoke to Heart and said: "It was clearly the joint intention of the pair to use violence on anyone they targeted: they were in it together as the CCTV showed - they arrived within seconds of each other.

"Ms Bensley was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time and was randomly picked out by the pair believing that she was a man and that she was wearing a gold bracelet. The brutal attack was captured on CCTV (above).

"Our thoughts remain with Glynis’ family at this time and we hope that today’s sentencing will provide some help in their grieving process."

A statement was read by police on behalf of Glynis’ sister Dawn: "We are a very close and supportive family and always look out for each other.

"To try and explain how Glynis’ murder has affected us is very hard to put into words.

"Glynis was my only sister and best friend.I would describe her as my right arm and I thought we would grow old together."