A 14-year-old girl who was allegedly battered to death by a 16-year-old boy with a hammer was ‘told not to meet him’ by a friend’s aunt because ‘you don’t know what weirdos are out there’, a court heard.

Viktorija Sokolova’s half-naked body was found propped up on a bench at a pavilion known in West Park, Wolverhampton, in April.

The 14-year-old had been subjected to a ‘ferocious’ hammer attack during which she was struck at least 21 times and had her skull smashed in and spine ‘snapped in two’.

A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has gone on trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court accused of murdering the schoolgirl.

He is also charged with raping the Lithuanian youngster and having sex with her dead body.

Today the court heard a police interview with a 13-year-old friend of Viktorija, who told officers how the teenager had planned to move to London the day after the attack.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also claimed Viktorija had arranged a midnight rendezvous with defendant, who called himself ‘Lazy Cho’.

She said: ‘The person [Lazy Cho] asked to meet Viktorija at midnight – she said yes but you can see from the texts he was asking to meet her for ages.

‘She told us that she was going to London the next day to get away from Wolverhampton.She did not give a reason she just said I’m going to London for a few months.She said that boy had asked to meet her in West Park at midnight, we just looked at each other – that was really late but I thought nothing of it.She just said he was a mate and did not tell us anything.’

The girl added: ‘Viktorija was with my friend, she was meant to go at 8pm but stayed to 10pm.

‘Her [friend’s] aunt told her to not walk through the park because it is “unsafe and you don’t know what weirdos are out there.She did not want people to know who she was meeting.We were going to go out on Friday, then they found a body and we knew she went though West Park, she was not answering her messages and calls.

‘I saw it was a teenage girl. I had a feeling it was her. I had a text from my friend, she had called me loads – I spoke to her and she said that body was Viktorija’s.

‘My friend had access to Viktorija’s Facebook as it was on her phone – and it showed she was talking to this boy [Lazy Cho].

‘His name was not a proper name.

DailyMail.