Brianna's middle-class killers were top pupils from good homes with lust to kill
They appeared to be regular schoolchildren but behind closed doors, they shared a twisted desire to kill.
Brianna Ghey's senseless murderers, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, who were previously referred to as Girl X and Boy Y during the trial, lured the 16-year-old to a local park before stabbing her 28 times in a frenzied attack. After being found guilty in December, the 16-year-olds, who were 15 at the time of the killing, will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
While the evil pair seemed to be regular kids in plain sight, they both developed a fascination with torture and had meticulously planned to live out their "thirst for killing" together. Jenkinson and Ratcliffe brutally murdered Brianna in broad daylight on February 11 last year in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire.
The horror unfolded in an unremarkable village that is now marred by tragedy that residents will never forget, with their leafy park haunted by an unfathomable murder of an innocent young woman. The 18-day trial at Manchester Crown Court heard that the two teens were intelligent, high functioning, and came from 'normal' backgrounds. The killers' parents had steady and respectable jobs, and both had aspirations of going to university.
Brianna had become Girl X's friend (MEN Media)Ratcliffe's mother is a skiing instructor and his father runs his businesses. Jenkinson is the daughter of a high school teacher. While on remand, Ratcliffe, from Leigh, passed eight GCSEs and had been self-tutoring for A levels in physics, biology, chemistry, pure maths and English literature.
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He is known to have had a particularly privileged upbringing, with family skiing trips abroad. His murder weapon was even a hunting knife bought from a souvenir shop. Neither had been in trouble with the police before but Jenkinson, from Warrington, was excluded from Culcheth High School, where Ratcliffe was a pupil, for supplying cannabis gummies to a younger pupil.
A neighbour told MailOnline of her family: "They are such a nice couple, very hard-working, law-abiding people. When their daughter was arrested I just thought it had to be a mistake. She was never any trouble. I never so much as saw her drop a piece of litter."
The two teens met at school aged 11 and became firm friends, confiding in one another about their warped desires. They knew they weren't wired right - one labelled the other a "sociopath" while her partner-in-crime said she was "not a normal person" after joking about dead babies.
Teen killers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe (PA)In the months before the murder, they shared thousands of disgusting WhatsApp messages drafting a plan on how they would go about putting an end to someone's life - with Brianna not being the original target - spurring each other on.
Jenkinson first came across Brianna when she joined Birchwood High School in 2022, and struck up a friendship after complimenting her eyeliner. From November 2022, she and Ratcliffe discussed their hit list - one was a boy described as a 'nonce', two were seen as the girl's 'enemies', another deemed 'an easy kill', and another boy who was a rival love interest of the girl he liked. Even after the murder on February 11, he considered how to ask her out in the days following for Valentine's Day.
What was clear was her fixation with the dark web, where she immersed herself in graphic videos of people being tortured. And along the way, developed an obsession with serial killers. She paid attention to Dr Death Harold Shipman, the Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, the Killer Clown John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, referencing them in her journals.
Photographs released by Cheshire Police at today's sentencing show pages in a notebook Jenkinson kept. On one page she listed bullet points containing characteristics and things about Dahmer, who killed and dismembered 17 people between 1978 and 1991, such as how he killed and disposed of bodies.
She also shared her admiration for sinister Hollywood movies, having watched her favourite Sweeney Todd 9,000 times, including the night before the murder, having confessed to him: "If I do end up killing M, I have a really sharp blade, the same one that Sweeney Todd uses." He was also named in her phone as 'Tesco John Wick' - a reference to a fictional hitman. When cross-examined however, she stated she gave him this nickname because 'he looked like a less good version' of the famous Keanu Reeves character.
This is Jenkinson's notes about Jeffrey Dahmer (PA)Her enthusiasm for cinema could explain why the girl had mapped out the murder plan in a handwritten note, as if she was crafting a production, and sent a picture of it to Ratcliffe. Delivering his closing speech on behalf of the boy, Richard Littler KC advised the jury: "If this case were a play, it would definitely be a tragedy.
"The script would have been written by Girl X. It would have been directed by Girl X, it would have been stage-managed by Girl X, it would have been produced by Girl X and the central character would have been Girl X. The central issue in the case is whether you can be sure whether Boy Y was part of the cast or just an extra drafted in for that afternoon on the 11th of February in Culcheth. Was he a fully paid-up member of the plan?"
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But it wasn't a one-man show, as he suggested various poisons and medieval torture weapons they could use on their prey, and showed a preoccupation with weapons including tomahawks and shurikens. As a child, he was a keen kickboxer, which was referenced in court, but Littler argued: "Despite the best efforts of Mr Pratt to paint a picture of a fighting, jabbing kickboxing champion. He was 11. Not really the Karate Kid impression Mr Pratt wanted to paint. The prosecution wanted to remind you of Tesco John Wick. He was a hitman. Boy Y, a hitman, Tesco John Wick. More like a Tesco meal deal."
Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans, Cheshire Police's head of crime, described the two as 'intelligent' to concoct such a horrifying plan given their tender ages. "I think they're both really intelligent kids," he said. "You look at their backgrounds, they're quite high-functioning. I think that's brought a level of arrogance, or certainly confidence. I don't think they ever imagined we'd uncover those text messages, and I'm not sure they ever thought we'd knock on their doors.
Her note had clear instructions (MEN Media)"We know in this case how it's ended. What I would say is, let's put this in a little bit of context. As horrendous as this is, it's really rare. Most 14 or 15-year-old kids do not go on to do things like this. These are two very warped individuals who have done what they've done. The access to the dark web is certainly quite worrying.
"It shows a level of intelligence. Not everyone can do that. It has probably made me reflect as a parent. Do you know what your kids are doing when they're sat with the door shut in their bedroom? There's probably a bit for all of us around wider internet safety and awareness, but I don't for one minute think we've got kids across Merseyside and Cheshire Googling how to kill people. We've got to keep this in the context of what it is, which is horrendous, but it's two warped individuals."
The jury was informed of both of the defendants' varying degrees of neurodivergence and had permission to play with fidget toys and puzzles to calm their anxiety in court. Ratcliffe, who was allowed to type his answers, has autism spectrum disorder and selective mutism, and following his arrest, he no longer spoke to anyone but his mother. She also had shown 'traits' of autism and ADHD.
In court, the two pals blamed each other for Brianna's death - which came after they tried to cover their steps with well-rehearsed text messages. The girl messaged the boy to say a "woman got stabbed" in the park to which he replied "holy c**". The next day, she even messaged Brianna saying: "Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park its on news everywhere. And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf."
Under arrest, Jenkinson laughed 17 times during her lying account to police detectives. 'I'm good at hiding stuff and playing the victim," she had told Ratcliffe. But in the glare of the courtroom she felt "overwhelmed" after the first day of her trial and left visibly shaking, sometimes dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
And the twitch to the right side of her face and right eye would become more pronounced under stress as her story fell apart in the witness box. They were joined by their parents, who watched on in horror.
It was reported at the sentencing that Jenkinson admitted for the first time stabbing Brianna Ghey herself. Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court the 16-year-old had been seen by a psychiatrist after she was convicted of murder last December and made "admissions".
They murdered Brianna at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington (PA)Ms Heer said: "She said effectively, she said that at the time of the killing she had in fact administered stab wounds herself. She had snatched the knife from Eddie's hand and stabbed Brianna repeatedly.
"She said Eddie had thrown Brianna to the floor and stabbed her three or four times then he panicked and said he did not want to kill her, so she carried on and stabbed her a number of times. When asked how many, she answered, ‘A lot.’ She was satisfied and excited by what she was doing."
After they were found guilty, Brianna's mum Esther shared a sincere plea about the killers' families. Speaking outside Manchester crown court after the verdicts, she said: "Prior to the trial I had moments where I felt sorry for the defendants because they had ruined their own lives as well as ours. But now, knowing the true nature and seeing neither display an ounce of remorse for what they have done to Brianna, I have lost all sympathy that I may have previously had for them. And I am glad that they will spend many years in prison and away from society."
She added: "Please have some empathy and compassion for the families of the young people convicted of this horrific crime. They too have lost a child and must live the rest of their lives knowing what their child has done."
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deputy crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle stated that both teenagers were "equally responsible in planning the killing and carrying it out", adding that they "appear to have been a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started out as dark fantasies about murder into a reality."
Trial judge Mrs Justice Yip warned the killers that they would be named when the sentencing hearing took place on February 2. Mrs Yip told the two defendants: "I will have to impose a life sentence. What I have to decide is the minimum amount of time you will be required to serve before you might be considered for release. I'm not going to do that this week. I'm going to ask for some reports in relation to each of you."
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