Saskatoon teen admits to lighting classmate on fire in 2024
CBC
A Saskatoon teen is admitting she planned and executed a fiery assault on a classmate at Evan Hardy Collegiate in September 2024.
The girl, now 16, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault causing bodily harm at Court of King's Bench in Saskatoon on Monday.
She sat in the prisoner's box wearing a zip-up hoodie and a Metallica t-shirt with a graphic of the band's "Harvester of Sorrow" song.
The girl had been scheduled to stand trial in 2026. Neither she nor her victim can be identified under the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The teen has been in custody since her arrest on Sept. 5, 2024 and is due back in court on Feb. 26 for sentencing submissions. The parents of the 15-year-old victim were in court for the pleas. Their daughter was not.
Crown prosecutor Ainsley Furlonger said the Crown is no longer requesting an adult sentence.
Outside court, a family member of the injured teen read a prepared statement written by her parents.
"The horror of what has happened will never disappear," she said.
"Our daughter will always wear the evidence of these crimes."
Furlonger read a 40-minute agreed statement of facts into the record before Justice Krista Zerr. It detailed what happened that day in the hallway at the east-side Saskatoon high school, and in the months leading up to the attack.
The parents of the injured teen, and the parents of her best friend, went to police and the school multiple times between June and August 2024 with concerns about escalating online threats from the other girl.
Court heard the victim had befriended the younger girl in Grade 9 but ended the relationship within a few months because of her constant texting. Once she indicated that she no longer wanted to be friends, the younger teen began threatening her and another friend.
The parents became involved at the start of the summer break in 2024, the injured girl's mother said in a March 2025 interview with CBC.
"June 30 was the first time she brought this to my attention. She showed me her phone and said that she's been getting these text messages from someone from Evan Hardy that she didn't know very well," she said.
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