A teenager has admitted the murder of a 16-year-old love rival whom she stabbed five times in a pre-arranged fight over a teenage boy.

Chloe Dransfield died after being attacked by beautician Kayla Smith, 18, following an escalating row over a boyfriend they had both been in ‘on-off’ relationships with.

Smith, of Austhorpe, had denied murdering Chloe outside her grandfather’s home in Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the early hours of May 28 this year.

However, on the second day of her trial, jurors were told that she had changed her plea to guilty.

Judge Mr Justice Kavanagh, KC, told them: ‘The defendant, Kayla Smith, had changed her plea and has now pleaded guilty to murder. That means she had admitted the charge of murder.’

Jurors retired briefly before returning to formally announce a verdict of guilty.

Smith was told she faces ‘custody for life’ when she is sentenced at a later date. She had previously admitted inflicting the five stab wounds to Chloe’s back and neck, but denied murder.

Chloe had travelled by taxi to Smith’s home in Leeds, West Yorkshire, with boyfriend Blake Dowling, 18, who had previously dated Smith, from Dowling’s mother’s house. 

Chloe Dransfield, 16, died on the morning of March 28 after being stabbed five times in the back and neck

Kayla Smith, 18, today pleaded guilty to Chloe’s murder on the second day of her trial

He is accused of helping to set up the confrontation despite knowing of the bad blood between the two teenagers. 

Dowling’s mother said Smith was ‘jealous and obsessed’ over her son’s relationship with Chloe, and it was heard in court they had rowed the previous evening.

A third defendant, Archie Rycroft, 20, is accused of encouraging the violence by filming the fatal attack on Smith’s mobile phone before it was later deleted.

During the opening of the trial yesterday, the court heard how Smith, who lived in a garden annexe at her grandfather’s bungalow in the Austhorpe area, had become embroiled in a series of heated exchanges with Chloe in the hours before the stabbing.

She was alleged to have boasted about being better in bed, and told Chloe: ‘I am going to batter you. Watch what I will do to you.’

A friend of Chloe’s who was on FaceTime with her that night said she heard Dowling answering his phone and heard Smith screaming: ‘Blake, I’m gonna smash your head in… you better not be with no girls… Chloe better not be there.’ 

She then threatened: ‘I’m gonna stab you in your throat.’

Around 34 minutes before the 5.11am killing, Smith messaged a cousin to say: ‘I’m stabbing her, on my nana’s ashes’.

Seventeen minutes later she messaged again ‘she’s on her way’ and ‘I’m stabbing her.’

Opening the case at Leeds Crown Court, Mark McKone, KC, said: ‘The prosecution say that this was a pre-planned fight. The prosecution say that Kayla Smith was the person who inflicted all the blows including the fatal blow with a knife.

Smith was seen inhaling laughing gas before stabbing 16-year-old Chloe 

Smith, 18, threatened to stab Chloe several times before the encounter on May 28 this year

‘Blake Dowling had been in a relationship with the deceased, Chloe; and Blake had also been in a relationship with the defendant, Kayla Smith.

‘Blake knew of the bad feeling between the two females.’

Footage from a neighbour’s Ring doorbell captured Smith ‘striding quickly’ across the pavement with ‘something shiny’ in her hand, shouting: ‘Come on, big girl.’

She was also captured on camera inhaling laughing gas before the attack, and running back to the summer house in her grandfather’s garden afterwards. 

Chloe was stabbed three times in the back and twice in the neck with a 20cm kitchen knife. A fatal 13cm wound to her back penetrated her lung, a post-mortem concluded.

Neighbours tried to perform life-saving resuscitation after finding Chloe gravely ill on the pavement in a large pool of blood.

CCTV footage taken at 5.12am, about one minute after the stabbing, shows Smith and Rycroft with Geoff Smith outside the summer house.

Geoff Smith is heard saying ‘I’m ringing the police’ and Smith replies: ‘You can’t ring the police, she’s dead.’

Mr Smith called for an ambulance 37 minutes after the stabbing, and was seen by a neighbour performing CPR on Chloe on the footpath.

The court heard Chloe was taken by ambulance to hospital but was pronounced dead at 6.40am.

When police arrested Smith and Rycroft, they were ‘laughing and joking’ with two of their friends and using nitrous oxide in front of officers, it was said.

Smith accepted stabbing Chloe and inflicting the fatal wound but had denied murder.

Dowling accepts taking Chloe to Smith’s home in a taxi, knowing the females might fight, but denies knowing that Chloe would be seriously harmed.

Rycroft accepts following Smith into the street but said he was simply ‘being nosey’ and did not film the confrontation.

The trial of Dowling and Rycroft continues.