Tom Thorpe, the heartbroken father of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe, described how he felt completely frozen upon learning of his daughter’s fatal stabbing. Aria suffered a knife wound to her chest at her home in Weston-super-Mare on December 15 last year.
At the time, 35-year-old Tom was going about his day when he received a call from Aria’s grandfather, Dennis, who broke the devastating news. “He said, ‘I’ve got some really bad news, Aria’s been stabbed.’ I responded, ‘What on earth do you mean?’” Tom recalled.
Due to his work on an offshore wind turbine, Tom saw Aria and her older sister every other weekend. When Dennis called, Tom was in Brighton and was shocked to hear that Aria had been attacked at her mother’s house. The call ended with news that a 16-year-old boy had been arrested in connection with Aria’s death.
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Having last seen Aria alive just two weeks earlier at a garden centre where she delighted in the Christmas reindeer walkthrough, Tom was left devastated. “She was an outdoor girl who loved exploring the woods and climbing trees,” he shared.
Struggling with immense grief, Tom described the surreal “freezing effect” of processing the loss of his daughter in such tragic circumstances. On the night he learned of her death, he and his partner Sophie stayed awake until dawn before traveling to Weston-super-Mare to be with family. Police later arrived, and Tom wasn’t able to see Aria until days after a postmortem was completed.
Ultimately, both Tom and Aria’s mother were allowed to spend a difficult hour with their daughter. Last week, the 16-year-old accused of Aria’s murder and manslaughter was acquitted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court, leaving Tom feeling as though the trauma had replayed. “He’s got away with it,” Tom said bitterly.
Following the verdict, some in the courtroom, including Aria’s mother, quietly left, having been instructed not to show emotion. Tom and Sophie left immediately, retreating to a quiet room in silence.
Tom questioned how someone could commit such an act, flee the scene, and then walk free after trial. Watching the accused embrace his father in court was deeply painful. Tom now seeks to appeal the verdict after consulting his barrister but acknowledges the challenges ahead unless compelling new evidence emerges.
The boy testified he had tried to scare Aria with a kitchen knife, accidentally inflicting the fatal wound. Despite this account, the jury ultimately returned verdicts of not guilty on both charges.
The trial judge thanked the jurors for their work on the distressing case, while Tom Thorpe continues to navigate an unimaginable grief made more complex by the court’s outcome.