Irish Daily Mirror

I’D SPEAK TO MUM OF BRIANNA KILLER

»»Fatal teen’s mother: She looks broken »»Also wants safeguards on kids’ mobiles

- BY PAUL BYRNE ESTHER GHEY ON MUM OF DAUGHTER’S KILLER news@irishmirro­r.ie

I do not blame her for what her child has done

BRIANNA Ghey’s mum says she is willing to meet the mother of one of her daughter’s teenage killers.

Scarlett Jenkinson was just 15 when she and pal Eddie Ratcliffe lured transgende­r 16-year-old Brianna to a park and stabbed her 28 times.

They were jailed for life on

Friday, with Jenkinson told she must serve a minimum of 22 years and

Ratcliffe at least 20.

Brianna’s mum Esther

Ghey, 37, said yesterday that although she had not come face to face with Jenkinson’s mum Emma

Sutton, 49, she had seen her looking “completely broken” in court.

She added: “She is going through an absolutely horrific time. I think that I would like to say if she did want to contact me and she did want to speak then I’m open to that.”

Esther said she did not “blame her for what her child has done”, and added: “If she ever wants to speak to me, I’m here.”

After Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were convicted of murder in December, Esther asked for people to “please have some empathy and compassion for the families of the young people convicted of this horrific crime”. Jenkinson’s family have since thanked her for her “incredible selflessne­ss”.

In a statement after the killers were sentenced, they added: “Her compassion is overwhelmi­ng and we are forever grateful.” Jenkinson had trawled the dark web to watch images of extreme violence. Brianna’s mum has now launched an online petition calling for safeguards on mobile phone use by children.

She said: “We’d like a law introduced so that there are mobile phones that are only suitable for under 16s.

“So if you’re over 16, you can have an adult phone, but then under the age of 16, you can have a children’s phone, which will not have all of the social media apps out there now.

“And also to have software that is automatica­lly downloaded on the parents’ phone which links to the children’s phone, that can highlight key words.

“So if a child is searching the kind of words that Scarlett and Eddie were searching, it will then flag up on the parent’s phone.”

She told the BBC’S Laura Kuenssberg she believed “without a doubt” that Brianna would not have been killed if such safeguards were already in place.

She said: “They wouldn’t have been searching that in the first place. And if they did search it then the parents would know and to be able to get them some kind of help.”

British Shadow Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he had spoken to

bereaved families about how to protect young people “from what happens on the dark web”.

He said the Government should use legislatio­n to force Ofcom to look at the issue. Brianna, from Birchwood, Warrington, Cheshire, was attacked in nearby village

Culcheth.

Jenkinson, from Culcheth, and Ratcliffe, from Leigh, Gtr Manchester, both now aged 16, had drawn up a list of five youngsters they wanted to kill which included Brianna.

A child psychiatri­st who has dealt with Jenkinson in her secure unit has said she has shown “no remorse”.

Dr Richard Church said: “There was a lack of empathy. She was very calm. No remorse. For a child going through a murder trial that was noteworthy.

 ?? BRAVE On BBC yesterday ?? KILLER
Eddie Ratcliffe
NO REMORSE Teen murderer Jenkinson
CLOSE BOND Esther and Brianna in family snap
BRAVE On BBC yesterday KILLER Eddie Ratcliffe NO REMORSE Teen murderer Jenkinson CLOSE BOND Esther and Brianna in family snap

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