Ellie Gould (6 February 2002 – 3 May 2019) was a 17-year-old English sixth form student from Calne, Wiltshire, who was stabbed to death on 3 May 2019 by Thomas Griffiths, a fellow student at her school, who was also 17 at the time. Griffiths stabbed Gould after she ended their relationship of three months. Griffiths was subsequently charged with Gould's murder, and pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court, where he was sentenced in November 2019 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of twelve-and-a-half years in custody before becoming eligible for parole. Because he was under 21 at the time of sentencing the law prevented him from receiving a whole life tariff.
A campaign launched by Gould's friends to have self-defence lessons taught in schools was debated in Parliament, and an education minister agreed to issue guidelines for schools wishing to hold self-defence classes. Gould's mother, Carole, subsequently campaigned to have the law changed to enable young offenders to be treated more like adults when convicted of serious crimes, such as murder. Her campaign for "Ellie's Law" led to the presentation of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill by Robert Buckland, the Secretary of State for Justice, to the House of Commons on 9 March 2021.
Biography
Born on 6 February 2002, Ellie Gould was the daughter of Matthew and Carole Gould, and lived with her family in Calne, Wiltshire. At the time of her death she was a Year Twelve Sixth Form student at Hardenhuish School in Chippenham, and was studying for her A Levels. A keen horse rider, she participated in local equestrian events, as well as competing in cross country. She had ambitions to join the mounted police and study psychology at university.
Gould celebrated her 17th birthday in early 2019. In January of that year, she began dating Thomas Griffiths, a fellow A Level student at her school, whom she had known since they were in Year Seven. Griffiths was her first boyfriend. Gould's mother has commented that her husband "wasn't overly keen" on Griffiths "because he didn't say much", but she assumed this aspect of his character was just down to his age. As Gould's exams approached, she wanted to focus on her studies, and felt the relationship was not right for her, so ended it in early May. Gould said that she felt suffocated by Griffiths's attention, and on the night before her murder, told friends he had not taken the split well.
Murder
On 3 May 2019, Griffiths, of Derry Hill, Wiltshire, was dropped off at school by his mother. After emailing his teachers to tell them he was feeling unwell, he walked to Chippenham bus station where he caught a bus back to Derry Hill, before returning home. His mother also returned home, and after hiding in the wardrobe of his bedroom so that she would not discover him absent from school, and waiting for her to depart again, he took the keys to a silver Ford Focus and drove to Gould's house. Following an argument, Griffiths attempted to strangle her, then used a knife he had taken from the family kitchen to stab her in the neck 13 times.
Griffiths spent an hour at the house attempting to clean up the crime scene, using clothes to do this which he placed in a plastic bag. He also washed his trainers in the kitchen sink, and cleaned the knife using an apron, before placing it in Gould's hand so as to make her injuries appear to be self-inflicted. He then used Gould's finger to unlock her mobile phone and, posing as her, texted one of her friends who was due to give her a lift to school, telling the friend not to collect her. After returning home to change, Griffiths put his clothes in the washing machine, then dumped the bag of bloodied items in a local woodland. A neighbour saw him returning from the woods and drove him back to school, where he was subsequently collected by his mother. Later that day he sent text messages to friends saying that he and Gould were "going on a break [from their relationship] and see how thinks [sic] go after exams", and to Gould's phone asking her if they could meet. Gould's body was discovered by her father at 3 pm that afternoon in her kitchen.