Sharon Carr

Carr was born in Belize on 21 December 1979 and was brought up by her mother and stepfather. She was one of four children and grew up in great poverty. She never knew her biological father. After moving to England in 1986, the family settled in Camberley, Surrey. Her parents' marriage soon ended following a serious domestic violence incident in which Carr's mother poured boiling fat over her stepfather. The incident caused the couple to be hospitalised with burns, and Carr's mother was charged with assault. At school, Carr was initially described as polite and helpful by teachers. Friends said that she was a sociable girl who preferred the company of older boys and that she occasionally showed flashes of aggression. Later, she became much more badly behaved, becoming disruptive and attention-seeking, and she had problems relating to authority. In 1990, her headteacher at Cordwallis Junior School in Camberley contacted social services over her behaviour. Sharon was briefly put into foster care, but she returned home after only one month. By the time she started secondary school, her mother had a new partner who already had two daughters. ==Murder of Katie Rackliff==

In the early hours of 7 June 1992, Carr randomly stabbed 18-year-old apprentice hairdresser Katie "Kate" Rackliff to death as the latter walked home from Ragamuffins nightclub in Camberley. Carr stabbed Rackliff—who was a stranger to her—32 times with a six-and-a-half-inch knife through her ribs, in her heart and in her vagina and anus. Rackliff's body was taken by Carr and some accomplices and driven to Farnborough, where she was dragged along a road and then dumped by a cemetery wall. ==Stabbing of pupil==

With Carr not apprehended, she returned to school but was excluded twice in early 1994. Carr stabbed the victim in the back, causing a lung puncture; the attack was stopped when five students entered the toilets and intervened. after being arrested, she told officers that she enjoyed stabbing cats and had beheaded a dog. She received a minimum tariff of 14 years imprisonment after her trial. The media reported extensively on the historical conviction of such a young murderer, highlighting her obsession with death and violence. ==Subsequent imprisonment and continued attacks==

Following her murder conviction, Carr was held in HM Prison Holloway. ==Lasting notoriety==

Carr's case has been noted for being particularly unusual. While female murderers are themselves uncommon, females who kill strangers are even more unusual, and the case of a 12-year-old girl killing an adult stranger has been described as unique. This led to renewed media interest in the school and the Carr case, with allegations being made that there was a culture of problems at Collingwood. Carr's case also returned to the news in 2016 when two female children were convicted of the murder of a vulnerable woman named Angela Wrightson, which led to comparisons with Carr's case. Another known case of a child killing an adult stranger was the 2023 murder of 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai by two 12-year-old boys. ==In popular culture==

Carr's case has featured in a number of documentaries: • In 2014, Carr was the subject of a season 8 episode of Deadly Women, titled "Never Too Young". The show incorrectly states her sentence as life without parole. • In 2017, Carr was the subject of an episode of Teens Who Kill, a series shown on Channel 5. • In 2017, a documentary on Carr, made by television personality Jo Frost, aired on Crime+ Investigation, as part of the series ''Jo Frost on Britain's Killer Kids''. ==See also==