Teen, 17, charged over 10-year-old girl’s stabbing death in NSW Hunter region

Police say the circumstances of the child’s death with multiple stab injuries in NSW’s Hunter region are ‘tragic’.

Police on scene at a home in Boolaroo where a ten year old girl was fatally stabbed. Picture: Adam Yip / NCA NewsWire

A 17-year-old girl who allegedly stabbed her sister to death in the Hunter region of NSW has been charged with a domestic violence murder.

She was last night refused bail and was due to face court on Tuesday morning.

“The facts will allege that the 17-year-old was the one responsible for stabbing to death a 10-year-old girl at the house in Boolaroo,” detective superintendent Danny Doherty told reporters.

A 17-year-old girl was arrested. Picture: Adam Yip / NCA NewsWire

“They’re tragic circumstances – it’s hard to imagine – the circumstances are still being investigated, it’s a very sensitive investigation, as you can imagine.

“There’s a family at home who’s still grieving, trying to come to terms with what happened to the 10-year-old family member and their loved ones.”

A police statement issued on Monday evening said emergency services had received reports around 3.45pm on Monday the stabbing.

Police had not previously interacted with this family for “matters such as this”, superintendent Tracy Chapman said.

The 10-year-old girl died from “multiple stab wounds to the upper body area” and no other people appear to have been injured, she said.

Detective superintendent Doherty said there “appears to be at the moment” an uptick in knife crime across the state and the country more broadly, following two high-profile stabbings in Sydney just a fortnight ago.

“Just remember, this appears to be independent, isolated from the other matters that’ve happened across not only in NSW but across the nation, really,” he said.

“We have seen for at least for the start of this year, a large number of acts of violence that resulted in deaths and a lot of them have been females. It’s a reflection on society in general.”

Lake Macquarie police detectives and the homicide squad continue investigating under Strike Force Upstream.