‘There were no red flags, it makes no sense’: Mother of murdered teen Ellie Gould says there were ‘no warning’ signs her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, 17, would become ‘such a monster’ over a ‘three-month relationship’
- Thomas Griffiths was 17 when he killed Ellie Gould after she broke up with him
- Mother told new documentary there were ‘no warning signs’ or ‘red flags’
- Speaking to MTV’s True Life Crime UK she added that she wants tougher sentences for youth who commit murder
The mother of teen murder victim Ellie Gould has revealed there were ‘no red flags’ or ‘warning signs’ that her daughter’s ex-boyfriend would become ‘such a monster’ over a three-month relationship.
Thomas Griffiths, then 17, from Wiltshire, was in a relationship with Ellie Gould, also 17, until the day before her death in 2019.
After three months together, Ellie, who dreamt of joining the mounted police, decided to break off the relationship to focus on her A-levels.
The next day, Thomas left school and went to Ellie’s house, where he murdered her in a frenzied attack, left the knife in her hand to make it look like she had killed herself, and then abandoned her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor before going back to school.
Now, speaking about her daughter’s death two and a half years on, Ellie’s mother Carole says that she ‘still doesn’t understand why it happened’ and that the murder ‘makes no sense’.
Speaking to MTV’s True Life Crime UK, she explained how her husband rang her hysterically after discovering their daughter’s body – and that she thought it was a horrible accident until the police confirmed it was murder.
Thomas Griffiths, then 17, from Wiltshire, was in a relationship with Ellie Gould (pictured) also 17, until the day before her death in 2019
Now, speaking about her daughter’s death two and a half years on, Ellie’s mother Carole (pictured with MTV presenter Linda Adey) says that she ‘still doesn’t understand why it happened’ and that the murder ‘makes no sense’.
‘My husband rang me hysterical, he said “you have to come home, Ellie’s had an accident'”
‘I just kept thinking, “what’s she done, what’s she done?” but then i was thinking “why is she home, she should be at school”.
‘When I arrived on the drive, I saw Matt sobbing and a police man stopped me and asked who I was, and I said “I’m Ellie’s mother, what’s happened?” and I looked at Matt and he said ‘”she’s died”.
‘I wasn’t allowed in the house, Matt and I were discussing what could have been, I said “Do you think she put a knife in the toaster and fell back and hit her head” and he just couldn’t speak and he suddenly said to me “There was too much blood, Carole” and I couldn’t imagine what that means.
‘He’s never been able to talk about it [finding her body].
‘You never thought your world would be turned upside and ruined in a moment, and that’s what it was.
After three months together, Ellie, who dreamt of joining the mounted police, decided to break off the relationship to focus on her A-levels. The next day, Thomas (pictured) left school and went to Ellie’s house, where he murdered her in a frenzied attack, left the knife in her hand to make it look like she had killed herself, and then abandoned her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor before going back to school.
‘I don’t understand, over a three month relationship at the age of 17, it just makes no sense, there were no red flags, there were no warning signs that he was such a monster.
‘He strangled Ellie first and when she fell to the ground unconscious he stabbed her’.
Griffiths, now 20, had been driven to school by his mother the morning of 3rd May.
He then left school to get the bus home, before illegally driven without a licence to Ellie’s house, where he strangled and stabbed her to death.
In an attempt to cover his tracks, he left the knife in Ellie’s hand to make it look like she had killed herself, and then abandoned her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor while he went back to school.
Timeline: What happened on the day of the murder?
1. Griffiths was driven to school by his mother
2. He secretly returned home by bus
3. Illegally drove a Ford Fiesta to Ellie’s house, where he arrived at 10.58am
4. Stabbed her to death and messaged a friend saying she wasn’t going into school that day
5. Left at 11.51am and returned to school
6. Ellie’s father found her dead at around 3pm.
He then used Ellie’s thumb to unlock her phone and sent a text to her friend Ellie Welling to say she didn’t want to come to school so not to pick up her.
The teenager sought support from a matron at Hardenhuish School in Chippenham and sent messages to Ellie’s friends to say he could not get hold of her. She was found dead by her father when he returned home four hours after the attack.
Speaking about discovering her friend’s death, Ellie Welling revealed: ‘I got a call from my dad to say please can you come to the house, there’s police here.
‘My name had been mentioned because I was suppose to be taking Ellie to school.
‘I told the police I was suppose to be picking her up but she’d told me she didn’t fancy going to school that day. It was odd because she’d promised me she was going to come in cause we both didn’t like history.
‘Initially I thought she’d gone for a walk and her mum’s come home and not found her and called the police out of pure panic.
‘But then police told she told me she had died.
‘I burst into tears, they were asking if I’d seen her, where I’d been, at the time I hadn’t suspected anything, I wouldn’t have put two and two together, and I wouldn’t have thought it was odd.
‘When they arrest Tom, I thought, they have the wrong person, no way he would do that.
She later discovered it was Tom who had text her using Ellie’s phone to make sure she didn’t find her.
Speaking to MTV, friends of Ellie added that Tom was ‘nice’ and ‘nobody saw it coming’.
Ellie’s friends Ellie and Tilda spoke to the show – they are pictured with presenter Linda Adey
After he killed her he sent messages in group chats on Snapchat saying he was having a hard time and had been scratching his neck due to nerves.
But theses marks were defensive wounds inflicted by Ellie as she was trying to escape.
Another friend from school, identified only as Tilda, explained: ‘We were all friends, when Tom got with Ellie that was the only relationship going on, he was quite reserved but he was a nice boy
‘This was her first proper real relationship, he made her smile, he made her laugh
After he killed her he sent messages in group chats on Snapchat saying he was having a hard time and had been scratching his neck due to nerves.
‘When it came to about two months in, he was a lot more in the relationship than she was, he was talking about marriage and kids, and she was taken a back, it was a bit of a red flag for her.
She also revealed how she discovered Tom was the killer via an Instagram message.
‘I looked on Instagram and I looked on the DMs and someone had sent “has anyone heard from Tom, there’s police cars outside his house”
‘I just remember thinking ‘what’ how why, who would murder such an innocent amazing girl.
Another friend, called Harriet, added that she discovered online that Ellie – who she called ‘the glue of the group’ had died.
‘I found an article that said a 17-year old girl had been killed and released it was Ellie’s road.
‘It was complete confusion I didn’t want to comprehend any of it.
‘We thought someone had broken in and killed her in the process. She had no enemies or anyone to be concerned about, that’s what was so hard, we couldn’t make sense of anything.
On May 3, Griffiths went to Ellie’s (pictured) house and murdered her in a frenzied attack, left the knife in her hand to make it look like she had killed herself, and then abandoned her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor while he went back to school
‘We thought we knew him, we thought he wasn’t capable of doing something like this”.
Griffiths initially claimed he had not seen Ellie that day but admitted his actions three weeks later when faced with overwhelming evidence by police.
At the time, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taylor said the defendant’s account began to ‘fall to pieces’ after police pieced together CCTV footage of his car driving towards Ellie’s home and the location services on his iPhone. The WiFi router at his home also documented when he arrived and left.
For the murder of Ellie Gould, Thomas Griffiths was jailed for a minimum of 12 and a half years; he could be eligible for parole before his 30th birthday.
But, as Ellie’s parents Carole and Matt Gould vehemently argue, the sentence does not reflect the severity of the crime committed.
Griffith’s sentence reflects that in law he is treated as a child, not an adult. Since Griffith’s conviction, Ellie’s parents have been campaigning tirelessly to have that law changed.
However last month, The Domestic Homicide Review into the murder of Ellie noted how the killer tried to disrupt Ellie’s study attempts and subjected her to ‘coercive control’.
The review said it was ‘alarming’ how quickly their separation escalated to murder.
No agency failings or shortcomings were identified in the review, although its recommendations included promoting the support available for young people in Wiltshire concerned about domestic abuse or controlling behaviour.
The review stated: ‘In this case, the perpetrator appeared to be disrupting Ellie’s studying during an important period of revision, displayed insecurities and appeared to be inducing guilt.
‘Ellie sought a break from the perpetrator during their revision for mock A-level exams, but the perpetrator appeared not to accept this.
‘His disruption of her studies thereafter should be seen within the context of educational sabotage.’
It described educational sabotage as ‘a less known form of coercive control and economic abuse which disrupts a victim’s ability to gain educational qualifications and furthers a perpetrator’s power and control over them’.
It said Ellie would have been able to use ‘the full range of specialist domestic abuse services’ within Wilshire had she wanted or felt the need to.
The review made a number of recommendations, including further raising awareness of indicators of abuse in young people’s relationships for agencies as well as families and friends.
Ellie Gould’s family’s statement in full after Griffiths was found guilty
A statement from the Gould family reads: ‘We would like Ellie to be remembered as a kind, caring young lady with a wonderful fun personality.
‘From a young age, Ellie had a huge love for animals Every Spring we would visit Lackham during the lambing season, and during the summer holidays we made many visits to animal farms to hold chicks, rabbits and feed baby animals.
‘On her first day at primary school she put holes in her brand new shoes as she spent every playtime playing with her friends crawling around on her hands and knees being a cat.
‘Ellie also loved our summer trips to Devon to stay at our aunt and uncle’s house – she loved their puppy Elsa and whilst the other young cousins were scared of the lively puppy jumping up, Ellie wasn’t and had a wonderful way with animals, calming the puppy and making it do whatever she wanted.
‘Every year from a young age, a pony always featured on her Christmas or Birthday wish lists.
‘As her parents, we tried to get away with buying a hobby horse to run around the garden on. The pleas continued so we adopted an Exmoor Pony, however due to the distance, we could only visit twice a year.
‘Finally we decided as we lived in beautiful rural Wiltshire, we’d buy her a pony – Missy.
‘Missy was white with a long flowing mane and tail, she looked like a unicorn when she was white, although more often than not, she looked brown as she loved rolling in mud.
‘Ellie spent hours brushing her and plaiting her mane and tail. She loved showing her off at local shows in ‘prettiest pony classes’ and was so proud one year to come first at Foxham show in the ‘best family pony class’.
‘Ellie’s natural riding ability improved immensely and in no time she was ready to move onto her next pony – Blackjack.
‘Again, winters and summers she competed in local shows and cross country events. It was nail biting to watch as she would gallop past and fly over enormous cross country jumps.
‘She also spent the summer months often just herself and her beloved Blackjack hacking over Wiltshire’s beautiful countryside.
‘Ellie loved the Sixth Form at school where she was studying for A levels.
‘She had built up a close group of friends who would often meet up at weekends and do activities such as the Escape Rooms. She would often ask if the group could meet at our house – ‘It’s just a gathering mum, not a party,’ she’d say.
‘We talked about visits to university open days and apprenticeships within the police force – she wondered if she could get into the mounted police with her riding skills.
‘Whilst she was excited about the next step in her life she also said, ‘But I don’t want the sixth form to end as I love it so much’.
‘Ellie had a lovely relationship with her older brother growing up, they rarely argued as she was fun loving and a joy to be around.
‘We would like Ellie to be remembered as a kind, caring young lady with a wonderful fun personality.
‘Ellie’s favourite charity was Riding for the Disabled who run activities for disabled children and adults and we ask that any donations in Ellie’s memory are made to this charity so that they can continue with their fantastic work.
‘This is what Ellie would have wanted.
‘Finally, we’d like to thank the community in Calne and Hardenhuish School for their support and comforting words, as well as the police who have provided us with support over the past few weeks.’
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