Two young girls have pleaded guilty for their roles in a violent beating at an Edmonton LRT station last year.

Both girls were 12 when they were arrested on Nov. 26, 2023, after an attack at Coliseum station. The assault left a 55-year-old woman in hospital with serious facial and head injuries, including a concussion.

The pair was charged with aggravated assault. But in separate court appearances in October and November, each pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault causing bodily harm.

Twelve is the youngest age that criminal charges can be laid against a person in Canada. Both of the girls’ identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which prohibits naming anyone younger than 18 who is accused or convicted of a crime.

The youths were both receiving intervention services from the province at the time of the assault, according to court records.

Court hears details of the assault

According to agreed facts read in court Tuesday, the attack began after one of the girls appeared to get upset after a “verbal exchange” with the victim, who was sitting on a bench in the transit station.

The court heard that the woman raised her arm in a “defensive” position, bent at the elbow, and both girls started punching the woman in the face.

One girl dragged the woman off the bench and onto the ground, where she and the other girl stomped on her multiple times. The woman sat up and pushed them away, but the assault continued.

One of the girls stopped, and someone else eventually pulled the other one away, but she returned a final time and continued stomping on the woman, who was by then lying motionless on the ground.

That girl was very intoxicated at the time, and there was a “marked difference” in her behaviour compared to when she’s sober, according to the agreed facts presented at her guilty plea on Oct. 23.

Police arrested the pair near Coliseum station shortly after the assault.

Both girls are scheduled to be sentenced in January.