A thirst for killing
Three teenagers went to the park, only two went home
Brianna Ghey, 16, was a ‘witty, fun and fearless’ teen. An outgoing girl who dreamt of being ‘TikTokfamous’ one day and had already amassed more than 30,000 followers on the video-sharing platform.
Her dad, Peter Spooner, was sure she was ‘going to be a star’.
He and Brianna’s mum, Esther Ghey, had shown their daughter endless support after she came out as trans aged 14.
Brianna struggled with anxiety and her mental health, and close friends said she was bullied at school.
But, through her TikToks, she inspired thousands of youngsters like her.
Then, one Saturday afternoon in February 2023, Brianna went to meet a friend at Culcheth Linear Park.
It was a bus ride from her home in Birchwood, Warrington.
I’m on bus by myself, she texted her mum.
That’s well good, Esther replied proudly.
Brianna was nervous about getting the bus, but would need to travel by public transport to her hair and beauty college course that autumn.
It was only around 90 minutes later, at 3:15pm, when a dog walker made a frantic 999 call.
She and her husband had found Brianna lying on a path in the park, soaked in blood.
‘I don’t think there’s anything you can do for her,’ the distressed woman told the operator.
Brianna had wounds to her head, neck, chest and back.
Despite the emergency services’ best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:02pm.
As the news was broken to Brianna’s devastated family, there was an outpouring of grief.
Shock deepened when, within 24-hours, two 15-year-olds were arrested for murder.
As they were charged, police tried to work out if it was a hate crime, whether Brianna was attacked because she was trans. Vigils were held for her. The two defendants, known in court as Girl X and Boy Y, pleaded not guilty to murder.
At their trial at
Manchester Crown Court in November 2023, the details were horrendous.
The court heard the pair had a ‘thirst for killing’. Brianna had been stabbed 28 times.
‘Acting together, they planned and executed their plan to kill her,’ said prosecution lawyer, Deanna Heer KC.
The level of plotting was simply staggering.
Girl X and Boy Y had been friends since age 11. Exchanged thousands of texts and WhatsApp messages sharing their dark thoughts. Talked about their appalling fascination with serial killers, murder, violence and torture.
I love watching torture vids. Real ones on the dark web, Girl X wrote to Boy Y. As their vile talk escalated to murder, they drew up a potential ‘kill list’ of five
children’s names. Including Brianna.
In one exchange they discussed how they could kill one boy by hanging.
If we can’t get [him] tomorrow we can kill Brianna, Girl X wrote.
The two girls had become friends in autumn 2022 after Brianna complimented Girl X’s eyeliner.
Yet Girl X became ‘obsessed’ with Brianna.
I don’t know how to explain, she told Boy Y, who replied to her with transphobic messages. Calling Brianna ‘it’. Eventually, their sinister plot took shape.
Girl X invited Brianna to the park on 11 February.
A handwritten note found in her bedroom detailed their plan.
Meet [Boy Y] at wooden posts at 1pm. Walk down to library… wait until Brianna gets off the bus and then the 3 of us walk to Linear Park, the note read. Then… Go to the pipe/ tunnel area. I say code word to [Boy Y]. He stabs her in the back as I stab her in the stomach.
And a message from Girl X to Boy Y read: Grab onto Brianna, slit her throat, when she starts to fall stab her in the back then pass me the knife. I want to stab her at least once even if she’s dead, jus coz its fun, lol.
That day, they met Brianna at the bus stop and walked to an isolated spot of the park. There, they pounced. Fleeing the bloody scene when they saw the dog walkers approaching. In court, the pair blamed each other. Claimed the other stabbed Brianna while their back was turned. A hunting knife was found in Boy Y’s bedroom, with Brianna’s blood on the blade and his DNA on the handle. Jurors were told Boy Y, who’d gradually stopped speaking to anyone but his mother following his arrest, had been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder, while Girl X had traits of autism and ADHD.
Both were convicted of Brianna’s murder.
At their sentencing in February 2024, the judge lifted an order banning the media naming them.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were revealed as Brianna’s killers and jailed for life.
Scarlett was handed a minimum of 22 years, Eddie, 20 years.
Scarlett had been transferred to Brianna’s school in November 2022 to give her a second chance, after spiking a 13-year-old with a cannabis sweet.
After her conviction, Scarlett finally confessed.
Admitted Eddie threw Brianna to the ground and stabbed her three or four times, before she snatched the knife and carried on.
Said she’d been ‘excited’ by what she was doing.
Brianna thought she was meeting a friend that day.
But she’d been lured by monsters who only had murder in mind.
After the trial, her mother Esther called for ‘empathy and compassion’ for the killers’ families.
‘They too have lost a child,’ she said, and ‘must live the rest of their lives knowing what their child has done’.
They had a potential kill list of five kids’ names