BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE. Undated family handout photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Julie Sheriff, 16, as a teenage girl goes on trial at the Old Bailey today for killing the 16-year-old, who died after she was stabbed in the head with a steel Afro comb.

Teenage girl Rebecca Douglas faces a life sentence for the brutal murder of 16-year-old Julie Sheriff with an afro-comb.

Julie was only 16 when she was stabbed in the head with the pointed metal handle by Douglas, then 15.

The pair started arguing about boys in Battersea, last May.

The jury heard how Douglas stabbed Julie in the collarbone before landing the fatal blow.

The impact of it upon Julie’s cranium sounded like “when you kill a goat back home,” according to a witness.

The tip of the handle punctured deep into her brain and caused the student to fall into a five month-long coma from which she never awoke.

After carrying out the violence, Douglas took to her mobile phone to tell friends about it.

She left a BlackBerry message saying: “I see some girl that I hate, like I actually hate her with a passion, and I kind of stabbed her.”

Today Douglas, who was arrested in Pimlico, wept in court as she learned her fate.

Jonathan Turner QC, prosecuting, said the girls knew each other and “actively disliked one another”.

He added: “There seems to have been a row brewing between them as a result of malicious gossip. Two young girls arguing about gossip and about boys.”

There also appeared to have been some “territorial issue” with Douglas asking Julie: “Why are you here?”

Doulgas had claimed self-defence.