PEOPLE who knew the teenager have mixed memories of the young killer.

While some talk of a quiet girl who was pleasant and polite, others claim she was a neighbourhood nuisance who threw eggs at windows and damaged electricity boxes.

One elderly woman told the BEN that the 16-year-old had smeared eggs on her front window and caused her months of disturbance.

But another resident, who revealed the young thug had visited his girlfriend's home just hours before Joanne Whitelegg died, said she had appeared as normal.

Matthew Gilmour, aged 58, told how police and paramedics were called to the blood-covered flat only four hours after he had talked to the girl. Mr Gilmour says the visit came as the teenager tried to discover who had been spreading malicious rumours about her. He said: "As far as I could make out the girl looked all right. She was actually in our kitchen talking to us on the night it all happened.

"When we found out what had happened we could not believe it. This girl had seemed so nice and well spoken and had not had any problems. She certainly didn't appear to be angry about anything that night.

"People said they couldn't believe she would have it in her to do something like that."

But one woman who lived near the teenager claims she became a victim of her pranks, adding: "She was just a pest, putting egg on my window."

And residents who lived close to Joanne Whitelegg's first floor council flat in Westwood Close, Farnworth, say they have been haunted by the brutal knifing of the 35-year-old woman.

The flat currently lies empty with some neighbours admitting they have been tempted to tell potential tenants of the brutal crime committed there.

Her neighbours talk of a woman who kept herself to herself, occasionally being seen walking back to her flat carrying bags of shopping.

One woman resident said: "Joanne was a great girl. She had lived here for about 10 years and she was always friendly and jolly.

"The other day a young lad came to have a look at the flat. When I realised where he was going. I nearly told him about it."