Psychologists call it a folie a deux when a shared madness drives two people to kill

THE bond of trust forged over social media between Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe was vital because it gave them the confidence to share their darkest fantasies, experts told the Mail.

David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, believes that plotting the murder through graphic messages on Snapchat and WhatsApp helped accelerate their plan to kill Brianna Ghey.

‘Brianna’s murder went from an imagined fantasy to reality within what seems like a breath,’ said Professor Wilson.

He added that the relationship between Jenkinson and Ratcliffe was a classic folie a deux, which means a shared madness or delusion that is typically found in couples who kill. Less typical is the fact that Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were not boyfriend and girlfriend. And unlike other notorious killer couples, such as Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the female — Jenkinson — was the ‘dominant’ partner.

‘Within every folie a deux there is always a dominant and a subservient,’ Prof Wilson said. ‘In this case, it is Jenkinson that seemed to be the one in charge.

‘I think Jenkinson’s confession that she also stabbed Brianna – which she had initially denied, placing all the blame on Ratcliffe – is very significant because I think through that confession what we are beginning to see is the actual workings of the power relationship between the two and how unusually it’s her, the woman, who’s in charge of this particular folie a deux.’

Prof Wilson said the only other recent British example, where the woman was dominant, was the case of Joanna Dennehy, a female serial killer who murdered three men in Peterborough in 2013 with her 7 ft 3in accomplice Gary Stretch.

‘Jenkinson is unusual but not unique,’ he said. ‘We view women or girls who commit violent crime as doubly deviant — they have not only broken the gender stereotype because they should be the more passive, quiet and nurturing of the sexes but, historically, violence is the preserve of men. That is why people are intrigued by women who commit such violent crimes.

‘It’s the toxic combination of the two [of them] that leads to these appalling crimes.’

Prof Wilson said it was ‘ intriguing’ that, when he was interviewed by police, Ratcliffe refused to go along with Jenkinson’s ‘story’ that Brianna had left them in the park to meet a boy, immediately blaming her instead, and that he stopped speaking to anyone, except his mother, after being presented with the forensic evidence against him.

‘I wonder to what extent that was a device to avoid being overwhelmed by the reality of what he had done,’ Prof Wilson said. ‘Because within a folie a deux once you separate the two, once they become more disconnected from each other, there is a realisation by the subservient [one] about the enormity of it.’

Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, who has more than 20 years’ experience working in the prison service and NHS, agrees that the dynamic between Jenkinson and Ratcliffe was crucial.

‘They find each other, then start to encourage each other to research and fantasise about murder and torture,’ Daynes said. ‘ The way these two personalities encourage each other is really the spark, I suppose, to the Molotov cocktail.’

She also agrees Jenkinson was the driver in the relationship.

‘Scarlett Jenkinson was the more sadistic of the two,’ she added. ‘She was the one that had more of a need for violence. And there was a level of, not coercion, but some manipulation of Eddie Ratcliffe and his limitations.’

One expert in autism who spoke to the Mail agreed Ratcliffe’s diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder would have made him more susceptible to Jenkinson’s influence.

But Daynes insisted both were sadists ‘pure and simple’. They

Teenage killers: Mugshots of Ratcliffe and Jenkinson

were desperate for the ‘ ultimate experience of killing somebody’.

A significant point in Scarlett Jenkinson’s path to murder, said Daynes, was when she was no longer interested in watching fictional horror, ‘but goes in search of real-life horrors’.

And the ease with which she could access torture and death online was among the most disturbing aspects of the trial.

Aged just 15, Jenkinson was able to download a browser that gave her access to the ‘dark web’, including red- room websites, so-called because of the amount of blood they feature.

‘I know police officers who have had to watch red-room material,’ says Daynes. ‘ Everybody I know who is exposed to this is utterly traumatised by it. It stays with them for life.’

In yesterday’s sentencing, the judge also noted Jenkinson’s ‘admiration of notorious killers’ and that she had a new ‘kill list’ naming two or three members of staff at the secure unit where she has been detained.

The fact that both killers seem to have had normal childhoods is another anomaly.

‘We’ve got two 15-year-olds who come from what appear to be entirely unremarkable, supportive families,’ said Daynes. ‘There may be a story that we don’t know, but I think it’s a combination of vulnerabilities. We’ve got a boy who’s got autistic traits, we’ve got a girl who’s got ADHD traits, who are feeling very unhappy with their lives and they find each other.’

Prof Wilson also believes ‘100 per cent’ that there was a ‘sexual’ element to the crime.

‘This is about sexual fantasy,’ he said. ‘ Of course, this becomes confused and contextualised by Brianna being transgender. But if they had killed the boy that they had first targeted that also would have had a sexual fantasy attached to it as well.

‘Because the fantasy isn’t about the biology, the fantasy is about being powerful, the fantasy is about being so omnipotent that they can decide to take the life of another person.’

Prof Wilson added: ‘ Now the sentencing process is completed, there will be a legitimate desire to understand what was motivating Jenkinson to behave in the way that she did.

‘I think what we’re seeing is just somebody who’s got a profound antisocial personality disorder. It’s important to have those definitions because those help us to think about what would be a suitable treatment.

‘But frankly, this is somebody who prioritises herself, her needs, is manipulative, is arrogant, is impulsive, is dangerous. She’s dangerous because she is particularly sadistic.’

‘Toxic combination leads to appalling crimes’

‘Dangerous because she is sadistic’