MUM’S FIGHT FOR CHANGE
Brianna Ghey was just 16 when her future was cruelly snatched away
Brianna Ghey was full of life and ‘an absolute character’ according to her mum Esther.
The teenager was outgoing, loved make-up, fashion and eating pizza. She was the heart and soul of every party.
Raised as a boy, Brianna had come out as transgender aged 14, and her family had fully supported her.
Despite this, Brianna had suffered some bullying at school but overall was a popular girl loved by her teachers.
On February 10, 2023, Brianna, then 16, and her friend Scarlett, 15, had organised to meet the following day at a local park. It was a big deal for Brianna, as she had planned to catch the bus on her own, something she wasn’t comfortable doing.
The pair went to school together and had become close after meeting in the inclusion room, where they received extra support from teachers.
On her way to the park, Brianna texted her mum just after 1.30pm to tell Esther she was on the bus.
I’m scared, she wrote, but bravely carried on.
Less than two hours later, Brianna’s body was discovered at the park, face down in the mud, by two dog walkers who called emergency services.
She was declared dead at the scene, having been stabbed 28 times in the head, neck, back and chest with a hunting knife.
Gorgeous Brianna had bled to death in daylight.
What sort of a monster could have done this?
The couple who’d found Brianna told police they had seen a boy and a girl running away from the scene.
CCTV footage was reviewed and revealed a young male wiping what appeared to be blood from his hands.
Other witnesses also saw Brianna with a girl and a boy, and the next day, police were able to identify
them as Scarlett
Jenkinson, Brianna’s friend, and Eddie Ratcliffe, then 15.
Police arrested them at their homes – and while taking Eddie into custody, cops found a bloody hunting knife in his bedroom as well as Brianna’s blood on his shoes and clothing.
At Scarlett’s house they found notebooks containing disturbing content that would become crucial at trial.
The pair were charged with murder and stood trial at Manchester Crown Court. They both pleaded not guilty.
The jury heard that the teens were intelligent but had a terrible fascination with death and murder. Scarlett Jenkinson was obsessed with serial killers and had watched sickening videos of torture she’d found on the dark web.
The prosecution also said the pair had been plotting the murder for months. A ‘kill list’ had been found in Scarlett’s home, with the names of five teenagers she and Eddie Ratcliffe wanted to kill, including Brianna.
She was found face down in the mud
Messages between the pair revealed they had ‘lured’ Brianna to the park that day with the intention of stabbing her with Ratcliffe’s hunting knife.
While plotting the murder, Ratcliffe repeatedly referred to Brianna as ‘it’ and cruelly said he wanted to know if she’d ‘scream like a man or a girl’.
Each blamed the other for the murder – but the jury was convinced both were involved.
In December last year, they were both found guilty of murder.
Two months later, Eddie Ratcliffe, then 16, was jailed for 20 years. Scarlett Jenkinson, also 16, received a 22-year sentence, due to the ‘huge amount of work’ she would need to undertake before a parole board would ever consider her eligible for release.
At sentencing the judge, Mrs Justice Yip, lifted the ban on publicly identifying the twisted teens and acknowledged that Brianna’s ‘exceptionally brutal’ killing was partially motivated because of her transition.
‘You both took part in a brutal and planned murder which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity,’ she said, addressing the killers.
Post-conviction, Scarlett Jenkinson confessed to a psychiatrist, saying she stabbed Brianna ‘repeatedly’ as she anticipated her leaving her. She also revealed she had wanted to keep part of Brianna’s body so she’d ‘always be with her’.
In a victim impact statement, Brianna’s mum Esther said, ‘I have moments where I feel sorry for them, because they have also ruined their own lives. But I have to remember that they felt no empathy for Brianna when they left her bleeding to death after their premeditated and vicious attack, which was carried out not because Brianna had done anything wrong, but just because one hated trans people and the other thought it would be fun.’
After the sentencing, Esther bravely met with Scarlett Jenkinson’s mum, Emma Sutton. Afterwards, Esther spoke to the BBC.
‘What has happened has impacted their family massively, just the same as it has impacted mine. What they’ve gone through is terrible as well. They haven’t only lost a child, but they’ve also got to live with what’s happened for the rest of their lives.’
In a bid to stop similar events, Esther teamed up with the Warrington Guardian for their Peace in Mind campaign.
So far they have raised over $168,000 to teach mindfulness techniques to children in schools to help kids to process negative emotions in a healthy way.
In March this year, Eddie Ratcliffe lodged an appeal against his life sentence. A judge will decide if the appeal can go ahead. ● Compiled by Russell Bell
They left her bleeding to death