There were rowdy scenes in the Old Bailey yesterday as a teenage girl gang member was cleared of murdering a 17-year-old school girl.

Chelsea Bennett, 19, said the killing of Sian Simpson was in self defence after a large group of girls clashed on Mann Close in Croydon last year.

Emotional scenes

The public gallery erupted as the not guilty verdicts was read out, with Sian's relatives screaming, swearing and shouting. Angry friends and family roared 'bitch!' as Bennett shook and cried in the dock. Jurors took four hours to reach their decision - not guilty of murder, not guilty of manslaughter.

Stabbed in the heart

Police found the girls brawling in the street. Miss Bennett had locked herself in her friends’ car as the mob surrounded it hurling bricks and kicking at her. She was arrested at the scene after she pulled the brown-handled steak knife, used to stab Miss Simpson, from under the car seat.

Sian Simpson - nicknamed 'pit-bull', apparently came at Bennett with a knife, jumping on her back and punching her in the head. She says she fell to the floor and picked up a knife she found on the pavement and plunged the blade into Sian's heart, piercing a lung.

The fight continued around them as Sian lay screaming and covered in blood on the ground.

Feud

The argument centred on Nathan Davidson, whose pregnant girlfriend, Daniele Cooke, was Miss Bennett's best friend. He also had a four-month-old son with Miss Simpson's cousin, Chantelle Campbell.

Prosecutor, Brian Altman, QC, had told the court the killing was the culmination of an afternoon and evening of tension between two groups of young females. He said:

“Resort was made, all too depressingly and familiarly, to the use of a knife to settle the score, with a fatal outcome.”

Miss Cooke, Bennett and three other girls went to confront Mr Davidson, 26, when she heard that he was with his former partner at his mother's house. She left a voice message on his mobile phone saying:

“You hear what I am saying, yeah? I am coming to your mum's house so if she's there she's going to get f***** up and so are you.”

Threats continue

The feud continues on a tribute site, where the two groups have exchanged threats. Sian's friends and family have vowed revenge in postings.

One read: "u so-called pals seem bloodthirsty!”

Ms Bennett told the court:

“I wanted to write a letter to Sian's family. I wanted to say maybe they can understand how scared I was and why I picked up that knife and I didn't even know that I had done it.”