New school wasn’t told she’d poisoned a pupil

THE school where Scarlett Jenkinson met her victim Brianna Ghey did not know she had been kicked out of her previous school for trying to poison another pupil with cannabis sweets, it emerged yesterday.

While a pupil at Culcheth High School, Jenkinson persuaded a 13-year-old schoolmate to take two ‘gummies’ laced with marijuana in the library.

But the pupil became unwell and needed hospital treatment after the attack, in

September 2022, and Jenkinson was suspended, being moved to nearby Birchwood Community High School to avoid permanent expulsion.

Yesterday it was claimed the school was not given the full details of the incident, including that the child had fallen ill or that the police had been called.

Birchwood head Emma Mills said: ‘We were told it was a one-off incident, where [Jenkinson] knew she’d made a mistake. There was nothing that raised a concern in terms of the information we were given.’

Jenkinson met Brianna in Birchwood’s ‘inclusion unit’, a class for vulnerable pupils separate from mainstream lessons.

Warrington Borough Council has started a child safeguarding review into Jenkinson’s interaction with key agencies, including social services and schools.

Culcheth High head Chris Hunt said they have ‘been working closely with partner agencies across Warrington’.

Last night the father of a Culcheth High pupil told the Mail his daughter was lucky to be alive after refusing to take the sweets Jenkinson then gave to the pupil who was hospitalised. He added: ‘Listening to the murder trial has been absolutely horrific. Every parent in this village feels like their children have had a lucky escape.’