THE young killer spun a web of lies and deceit as she tried to hide her guilt.

Seconds after she had knifed her friend to death, paramedics came across Faughey tending to the bloodied body of Joanne Whitelegg.

She had dialled 999 for the ambulance after being told by a care worker to do so when she contacted the girl on her mobile phone to challenge her about breaking her midnight curfew.

The teenager even insisted on travelling with Joanne in the ambulance as paramedics battled to save her, after claiming she was a close friend who had witnessed the stabbing.

And later, when interviewed by detectives, the teenager concocted a catalogue of lies to try to frame an innocent man.

She told detectives how she and Joanne had been watching the television alone when they were disturbed by a knocking at the flat door.

She claimed Joanne had gone to answer the door and the teenager went on to tell how she heard screams, running to the top of the stairs to see a man stabbing Joanne.

Her tale of deceit grew, with her going on to claim that the knifeman had then turned on her with the blade before fleeing the scene.

Detectives were then told how the youngster cradled Joanne in her arms, as the stricken woman bled to death. Faughey was initially treated as a witness, with a man named by her arrested just hours after the attack and interviewed. He was eventually released without charge the following day.

It was as police and forensic teams continued to gather evidence that suspicion began to fall on Faughey.

Her intricately woven story was to prove to be lie after lie.

The night after the killing police arrested her and interviewed her over a two-day period.

To keep her in custody for that time, detectives were forced to obtain a warrant of further detention from Bolton magistrates.

Despite continued denials police charged her with murder on February 17 and she was placed before the next court.

Magistrates remanded her, pending trial, to secure social services accommodation.

But the killer had not satisfied her need to lie, falsely implicating another man in the killing, with her continuing to deny the offence until July 10.

It was on that day -- the first day of her trial -- that the girl finally cracked, apparently breaking down in the cells of Manchester Crown Court to confess to the evil crime, pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.