How I made ‘emotional connection’ with killer’s family, by Brianna’s mum
THE mother of murdered schoolgirl Brianna Ghey last night revealed she felt ‘a connection’ with the mother of one of her teenage killers during a recent meeting.
Esther Ghey, who has won praise for her campaign work following the death of her daughter, who was transgender, said she and Scarlett Jenkinson’s mother discussed ‘the challenges of parenting’.
The extraordinary encounter comes two weeks after Ms Ghey met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak while campaigning for phone companies to do more to prevent teenagers from being able to access harmful content online.
She has also been pushing for better mental health support in schools following last month’s jailing of tortureobsessed Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16.
Displaying an incredible lack of bitterness, Ms Ghey said she hoped to work with Jenkinson’s mother to support both campaigns.
In February last year Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time, used their phones to hatch a plan to lure Brianna, 16, to a park in Cheshire before stabbing her to death in a ‘frenzied’ attack.
Jenkinson, whose mother Emma Sutton, 49, is a former teacher at a Catholic high school, had downloaded a special browser to watch real-life torture on the dark web.
Following the pair’s conviction for murder at Manchester Crown Court last December, Ms Ghey said she had ‘ a lot of sympathy for their parents because they’ve had to sit there and listen to what their children have done’.
After Jenkinson was given a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years behind bars, her family responded that they were ‘forever grateful’ to Ms Ghey for showing them ‘empathy’ and ‘overwhelming compassion’. Now Ms Ghey has revealed she had a ‘very emotional’ meeting with Jenkinson’s mother and uncle last week where they discussed ‘family and the challenges of parenting’.
Ms Ghey said that as a former teacher, Scarlett’s mother was ‘really interested’ in supporting her campaigns. She added: ‘I would welcome the chance of working with her moving forward’ and insisted that she ‘didn’t feel any anger or resentment towards Scarlett’s mum,’ adding that it showed ‘tragedies have far-reaching ripples’.
Ms Ghey, 37 said Jenkinson’s family ‘haven’t only lost a child, but they’ve also got to live with what’s happened for the rest of their life’.
She added that as both are ‘mothers trying to navigate something that nobody should ever have gone through’, she felt ‘ a connection to her as well’.
Asked how she could meet Jenkinson’s mother without feeling ‘anger and rage’, she said she did not want to ‘ hide away at home virtually crippled with hate’ but wanted to ‘make something good’ out of an ‘ absolutely horrific situation’.
Last week it emerged that Ratcliffe is seeking permission to appeal his sentence of life with a minimum of 20 years.
Meanwhile, Ms Ghey last night called for more ‘drastic’ action to curb online hate after she was told that police could not trace a troll who targeted her during the trial due to ‘privacy laws’.
‘Tragedies have far-reaching ripples’