Girl, 16, stabbed five times by love rival and left to die in 'pre-planned fight' over teenage boy, murder trial hears

A 16-year-old girl was stabbed five times and left dying in the street after arranging a fight with a love rival, a murder trial has been told. Chloe Dransfield was knifed three times in the back and twice in the neck after travelling to confront Kayla Smith, 18, following a row over Blake Dowling, also 18, who both girls had been in a relationship with. Leeds Crown Court heard on Wednesday how Smith sent a message to a friend just 18 minutes before the fatal clash, declaring: 'I'm stabbing her.' Chloe had travelled by taxi to the home Smith shared with her grandfather in Leeds, West Yorks, with Dowling, who was aged 17 at the time, after the girls agreed to fight.He is accused of helping to set up the confrontation despite knowing of the bad blood between the two females. A third defendant, Archie Rycroft, 20, is accused of encouraging the violence by filming the fatal attack on Smith's mobile phone before it was later deleted. All three deny murdering Chloe in the early hours of March 28 this year. Smith has pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter.Opening the case at Leeds Crown Court, prosecutor Mark McKone, KC, said: 'The prosecution say that this was a pre-planned fight. Chloe Dransfield, 16, died on the morning of March 28 after being stabbed five times‘The prosecution say that Kayla Smith was the person who inflicted all the blows including the fatal blow with a knife. 'Blake Dowling had been in a relationship with the deceased, Chloe; and Blake had also been in a relationship with the defendant, Kayla Smith. 'Blake knew of the bad feeling between the two females.' The court heard how Smith, who lived in a garden annexe at her grandfather's bungalow in the Austhorpe area, had become embroiled in a series of heated exchanges with Chloe in the hours before the stabbing. She is alleged to have boasted about being better in bed, and told Chloe: 'I am going to batter you. Watch what I will do to you’.In another exchange, overheard by Chloe's friend during a FaceTime call, Smith allegedly threatened: 'I'm gonna stab you in your throat.' Chloe replied: 'Try stabbing me in my throat, I'll take it straight out your hand.'In another exchange at Dowling’s mother’s house in the hours before the killing, Chloe told Smith: ‘I’m not scared of you, I’m sick of you threatening me, you still dying over Blake, sending him messages that you still love him.’About two hours before Chloe’s death, Smith messaged Dowling saying: ‘Listen, I love you Blake. I will never find someone that I love like you. Please stop.’ Around 34 minutes before the killing, Smith messaged a cousin to say: 'I’m stabbing her, on my nana’s ashes'. Seventeen minutes later, she messaged again: 'She’s on her way’ and 'I’m stabbing her'. Mr McKone said footage from a neighbour's Ring doorbell when Chloe arrived at Smith’s property captured her 'striding quickly' across the pavement with 'something shiny' in her hand, shouting: 'Come on, big girl'. Chloe was attacked with a 20cm kitchen knife at 5.11am. A fatal 13cm wound to her back penetrated her lung, a post-mortem concluded.Neighbours tried to perform life-saving resuscitation after finding Chloe gravely ill on the pavement in a large pool of blood. A minute after the fatal attack Smith's grandfather, Geoff Smith, was recorded saying: 'I'm ringing the police.'Smith allegedly then replied: 'You can't ring the police, she's dead.' An ambulance was not called by Smith's grandfather until 5.48am, 37 minutes after the stabbing, the jury heard. When police arrived at Smith's home, she allegedly claimed that she had neither seen nor heard anything. Officers found her with Rycroft and two other people in the annexe, where the group were said to be ‘laughing and joking’ and inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons in front of officers.The court heard Chloe was taken by ambulance to hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.40am. Smith now accepts stabbing Chloe and inflicting the fatal wound but denies murder. Jurors were told that she 'lied' to police in interview, telling officers that she was asleep and in bed with Rycroft. She also refused to hand over the PIN number to her phone. Dowling accepts taking Chloe to Smith's home in a taxi, knowing the females might fight, but denies knowing that Chloe would be seriously harmed. Rycroft accepts following Smith into the street but said he was simply 'being nosey' and did not film the confrontation. Mr McKone concluded: 'Kayla accepts stabbing Chloe and causing the fatal wound. 'However, Kayla's case is that she did not intend to kill Chloe or to cause Chloe really serious harm.' The trial continues.