Kiwi teen Mali Bennett-Smith seen in family video with sister Luka before he murdered her

The siblings reportedly spent a great deal of time playing video games.

A Kiwi teenager convicted for murdering his sister because he found her “annoying” was seen laughing and joking with her in a video posted just months before he brutally took her life.

Mali Bennett-Smith, 17, who now lives in the UK, was jailed for a minimum term of 10 years and five months after pleading guilty to sister Luka Bennett-Smith’s murder at Bristol Crown Court on Monday.

A video posted to Facebook by their father Andy Smith in September last year shows the pair laughing together as they enjoy a drink outside a Dutch cafe.

Smith says the family are “living the dream in Amsterdam” in the short clip.

But just 49 days after the video was shared, Mali stabbed his sister to death before calling emergency services and telling operators: “I hated her my whole life.”

Andy Smith (left) said he was "living the dream in Amsterdam".

The murder

The court heard that his sister Luka, 19, had agreed to let him practise a headlock on her.

But instead of letting go when she tapped him, as he had done on previous occasions, he continued to hold her before stabbing her repeatedly on October 2024 at their home in St Andrews, Bristol.

He rang emergency services 20 minutes later, shortly before 6.30pm, and told them: “I stabbed my sister to death.”

The court heard that he told operators: “I hated her my whole life and I don’t know, I just didn’t want to ever see her again.”

Judge William Hart said: “It’s often said in courtrooms when a child has died ‘It must be every parent’s worst nightmare’.

“The horror of the loss of their daughter at the hands of the son they still love is beyond even the worst nightmares.”

NZ upbringing and video game obsession

The court heard that Mali Bennett-Smith grew up on a farm in New Zealand, where he was home-schooled, but after his parents divorced, he moved to the UK with his sister and mother with the aim of going to college to prepare to join the army.

The Daily Mail reports that their mother Liz Bennett tried to bring a “Steiner” approach to the siblings’ schooling and struggled with their use of video games, once telling other parents: “My husband Andy and I are still struggling seeing our kids spend all their time on the computer playing games. Even when friends come over they don’t want to stop and play.

“Their cousins have stopped coming over because all our kids ever do is play computer games. I love that it makes them happy but we’re battling how this has come to dominate all our lives.”

The siblings reportedly spent a great deal of time playing video games.

Ray Tully KC, defending, said that Mali had fallen deep into video games and become dissociated from the real world.

“Mali did not know how to manage his increasing feelings of frustration and resentment towards Luka.”

He later dropped out of his college course and was home alone with his sister when the killing took place.

Bennett-Smith later told police that his sister was “annoying” and he felt she bullied him.

He said: “After watching a video, I went downstairs to the lounge and I asked Luka if I could practise a headlock on her.

“She agreed, we have done this before and when she needed me to stop we had an agreement where she would tap me on the arm.

“On this occasion, I had decided I was not going to stop, I wanted to kill her, I had enough with regards [to how] she had been treating me over the years and recently.”

Luka and Mail Bennett-Smith spent their childhood in New Zealand.

‘Shocking and brutal’ killing

Sentencing him, the judge said: “The killing was shocking and brutal.

“It has deprived Luka of her life, your parents in effect of two of their children, and will deprive you of your liberty.”

He said the use of a knife, the fact Bennett-Smith “undoubtedly intended to kill” and the brutality were aggravating features.

Tully said Bennett-Smith had severe dyslexia and dysgraphia and although he had an above-average IQ was found to have below-average “processing speed”.

The judge lifted reporting restrictions on naming the defendant after an application by the PA news agency.

After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Nadine Partridge, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “Our thoughts remain fully with Luka’s family at this difficult time. They continue to be updated and supported by specially trained family liaison officers.”

– Additional reporting, Daily Telegraph

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