{"id":324984,"date":"2025-12-19T17:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324984\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:08:10","slug":"family-of-nine-year-old-aria-thorpe-pay-tribute-to-beautiful-soul-as-teen-appears-in-court-charged-with-murder-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324984\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe pay tribute to &#8216;beautiful soul&#8217; as teen appears in court charged with murder | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The family of a nine-year-old girl stabbed to death have said she was a &#8220;beautiful soul&#8221; who was brave, kind-hearted and &#8220;always put a smile on people&#8217;s faces&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Police were called to Lime Close in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, just before 6.10pm on Monday, where <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/boy-charged-with-murder-of-nine-year-old-girl-as-victim-named-13484630\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aria Thorpe<\/a> had suffered a single stab wound.<\/p>\n<p>The child was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>In a tribute released by Avon and Somerset Police on Friday, the girl&#8217;s family on her mother&#8217;s side said: &#8220;For those who didn&#8217;t have the privilege of knowing Aria, she was the most beautiful little soul &#8211; happy-go-lucky, full of light, and joy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She loved to sing and dance, and she took such pride in dressing up, always wanting to look just like her mummy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tom Thorpe, the girl&#8217;s father, said: &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to put into words how devastating it is, our little Aria, that you&#8217;re up there with the angels looking over us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It comes as a 15-year-old boy charged with Aria&#8217;s murder appeared in court.<\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"563x750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-aria-thorpe-killed_7113295.jpg\"   alt=\"Pic: Avon and Somerset Police\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Pic: Avon and Somerset Police<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/download-app\" target=\"blank\" data-tracking-label=\"ui-app-promo-download-link\" class=\"ui-app-promo sdc-article-widget\" data-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"ui-app-promo\" data-testid=\"app-promo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Family pays tribute to &#8216;precious girl&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In their statement, Aria&#8217;s family on her mother&#8217;s side said her death &#8220;has devastated us beyond words&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our hearts are broken in a way we never imagined possible,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a family, we are holding one another close and doing everything we can to support each other through this unimaginable time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They said they were &#8220;truly touched by the lovely messages we have received&#8221;, before asking &#8220;that our privacy is respected, as we try to come to terms with the terrible loss of our precious girl&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-aria-thorpe-weston_7112746.jpg\"   alt=\"Pic: PA\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Pic: PA<\/p>\n<p>Mr Thorpe said: &#8220;How sad it&#8217;s going to be not hearing &#8216;Dad, how long left?&#8217; on our long journeys back and forth at weekends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How I&#8217;ll long to hear you asking me to test you with maths, &#8216;numbers&#8217; as you called it, to entertain you when you get bored with the iPad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How sad it&#8217;s going to be not making your buttery crackers, grapes and a yoghurt for your breakfast.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/skynews-weston-super-mare-aria-thorpe_7113093.jpg\"   alt=\"Flowers laid in memory of the young girl\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Flowers laid in memory of the young girl<\/p>\n<p>Mr Thorpe then said that Aria was &#8220;such a brave, kind-hearted and a beautiful innocent soul&#8221;, and &#8220;always put a smile on people&#8217;s faces with your wacky ways and just outright madness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;Your other little family down here in Portsmouth will forever miss you.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll miss you begging to go outside, even in the pouring rain just to have as much fun as possible in the little time we had at weekends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You will be greatly missed, you special little angel. A life gone far too early but I hope a life lived well. We all love you dearly. Goodnight darling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Teenager in court<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy charged with Aria&#8217;s murder appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, where he was remanded.<\/p>\n<p>The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, was arrested in the Somerset village of Worle at 6.19pm on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>He is next due in court on 16 March 2026. Appearing via video link from youth detention accommodation, he spoke only to confirm his name.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Peter Blair KC set a provisional trial date for 15 June during the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a nine-year-old girl stabbed to death have said she was a &#8220;beautiful soul&#8221; who was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-324984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}