Laughing and faces while they exaggerated beer outside a sidewalk café during a family trip to the Netherlands, Mali and Luka Bennett-Smith look like any brothers and sisters.
The short video was posted on Facebook on 1 September last year by their father Andy Smith, who is heard that she was 'the dream in Amsterdam Life' but only 49 days later the 17-year-old Mali killed his 'annoying' older sister Luka in the house they shared.
The two brothers and sisters had only been together in the parental home on October 20, 2024, when Luka, 19, had agreed that Mali could practice a headlock on her, but instead of letting go when she tapped him, as he had done before, he kept holding her before she stabbed her repeatedly.
Twenty minutes after killing, he called 999 and said, “I put my sister dead.”
The court heard Mali, who has attention deficit disorder, told operators that they had not had a fight, but he said: 'I hated her all my life and I don't know, I never wanted to see her again.
“On this occasion I had decided that I would not stop, I wanted to kill her, I had enough with regard to how she had treated me over the years and recently.”
The brothers and sisters grew up on a remote farm in New Zealand, where they were trained at home, but after his parents were divorced, he moved to the UK and Bristol. Mali had dreamed of becoming a member of the army, but stopped from his university course, the court was told.
Facebook Pictures chart an idyllic and Bohemian youth of two closest brothers and sisters who grow up together, enjoy theme parks and travel to the beach.
Brothers and sisters Mali (right) and Luka Bennett-Smith (left) depicted together before Mali brutally killed his 'annoying' older sister
Mali (left) and Luka (right) grew up on a remote farm in New Zealand, where they were trained at home
Luka, 19, agreed that Mali, 17, could practice a headlock on her, but instead of let go when she tapped him
But home education seems to have come to his own challenges for Mama Liz Bennett who tried to bring a 'Steiner' approach to training that discourages children to view time at screens.
She once said to colleague parents: 'My husband Andy and I still have trouble seeing our children spending all their time on the computer playing games. Even when friends come by, they don't want to stop and play.
'Their cousins have stopped coming by because all our children once play computer games. I think it's great that it makes them happy, but we fight against how this has started to dominate our entire life. '
Those worries seem deeply in the light of Monday's hearing at the Crown Court of Bristol, where – after the guilty plea of Bennett -Smith to killing – Ray Tully KC, defensive, said his 'somewhat unconventional' upbringing meant that he had not been blamed with other children of his own age.
Mr. Tully said that the suspect would disappear into a world of video names and be dissociated from the real world.
He said, “Mali did not know how to manage his increasing feelings of frustration and resentment towards Luka.”
He said that the teenager, from Cromwell Road, had 'really regret' for his actions.
Not long before the three-week Amsterdam break, Andy and Liz split apart with mother and teenagers who moved to a house in Cromwell Road, Bristol, while Daddy in Auckland, New Zealand, where he led a organic food company that specialized in street food in the Middle East.
Luka took advantage of helping her father's biological food company that specializes in street food in the middle -east
Facebook Pictures chart an idyllic and Bohemian youth of two closest brothers and sisters who grow up together, enjoy theme parks and travel to the beach
A judge said: “The horror of the loss of their daughter by the son of the son they still love is even the worst nightmares”
Luka and Mali shown. Home-schooling seems to have come up with his own challenges for Mama Liz Bennett who tried to bring a 'Steiner' approach to training that discourages children to look at the screens time
A judge said that the 'shocking and brutal' killing 'luka has robbed of her life, in fact your parents will take away from two of their children, and you will deprive your freedom'
After his parents were divorced, Mali moved to the VK and Bristol. He had dreamed of becoming a member of the army, but stopped from his university course, the court was told
Judge William Hart described the murder as 'the worst nightmare' by Bennett-Smith for at least 10 years and five months and described the murder as 'the worst nightmare'.
He added: “The horror of the loss of their daughter through the son of which they still love is even the worst nightmares.”
The judge distributed him to detention during the pleasure of his majesty and said: 'The murder was shocking and brutal.
“It has robbed Luka of her life, in fact your parents of two of their children, and will take away from your freedom.”
He said that the use of a knife, the fact that Bennett-Smith “was undoubtedly meant to kill” and the brutality were worsening characteristics.
He added: “The scene that the paramedics met on arrival in that house will introduce me to live with them forever.”
The judge has lifted the reporting restrictions to appoint the defendant after an application by the PA press agency.
After the conviction, Detective Inspector Nadine Partridge said the Avon and Somerset police: 'Our thoughts remain entirely with Luka's family at this difficult time. They are still updated and supported by specially trained family businesses. '
