The Troubled Years

DETAILS of the troubled upbringing of a teenager accused of attempting to kill a 13-year-old Littlehampton boy were revealed to a jury this week.

The mother of 18-year-old Gemma McGarvie was speaking at Lewes Crown Court, where her daughter and Lorraine Large, 22, are on trial for the attempted murder of the boy, and wounding with intent.

He was found, barely alive and lying in a pool of blood on The Green, near Littlehampton seafront, with 23 stab wounds and his throat gashed, the court has heard.

The defendants, said in court to have been in a lesbian relationship, allegedly took the boy from McGarvie s bedsit flat at South Terrace, where he had been attending a party, and attacked him beside a bench near the Beach Crescent flats.

Sheena Sivyer told the court she was 18 when she gave birth to McGarvie, whose natural father, Colin Dixon, had left when she was still pregnant.

To her knowledge, McGarvie had had no contact with her father.

At the age of three, McGarvie went to live with Mrs Sivyer s parents. She began to have difficulties as she was growing up, and lived with a number of foster parents, as well as her grandparents. That had been "very disturbing" for her, said Mrs Sivyer.

The trial continues. For the full story, see the Gazette, November 22.