A 15-year-old girl has been sentenced to nine years in prison for manslaughter after stabbing a “peaceful and caring” musician to death in West Sussex.

Nimroy Hendricks, 24, died in Russell Way, Crawley, in October 2020 after being found with a single stab wound to the chest.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 14 at the time of the attack and appeared at Bristol Crown Court charged with murder on Friday 4 March.

Her plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility was accepted by the Crown after expert medical practitioners found she suffered a “significant abnormality of the mind” at the time of the attack.

Mr Kelly and the girl were known to each other.

The girl’s nine-year sentence comprises of a five-year custodial sentence and four years on extended licence.

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Detective Chief Inspector Andy Wolstenholme from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team said: “The death of Nimroy Hendricks is heartbreaking, and the whole circumstances of this case are both complex and tragic; our thoughts are with everyone affected by the loss of Nim.

“The acceptance of the plea for manslaughter was taken in light of all the available evidence from expert witnesses, and only after painstaking examination and discussion between Counsel, the CPS, the Police and Nim’s family.”

He added: “I know that Nim’s family will never get over the devastating loss of a man who was so peaceful, selfless and caring.

“He was a talented musician who loved life, and whose death was the tragic result of a knife taken from home, in hands and a location where it never should have been.

“Those short moments have had an immeasurable effect on so many people who loved Nim, and many more who have heard his story and despaired at another death involving a knife.”

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