02 February 2024 , 15:29
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Tragically, Brianna Ghey was 'the chosen one' from killers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe's sinister 'hit list'.
The 16-year-old senseless killers, who met at school aged 11, lured the transgender teen, also 16, to a park in Warrington on February 11, 2023, before brutally stabbing her to death 28 times. When Brianna's bleeding body was discovered by dog walkers, the two murderers acted none the wiser.
Calculated Jenkinson sent rehearsed text messages to her accomplice, pretending to be surprised at the news of a dead body being found, while she chillingly messaged Brianna in a bid to plant a seed that a man from Manchester could have been responsible. She said: "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."
Jenkinson, from Warrington, and Ratcliffe, from Leigh, both 15 at the time of the murder, were known as bright students from good homes. His mother is a skiing instructor and his father runs businesses, while Jenkinson is the daughter of high school teachers.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe have been sentenced to 42 years today for the murder of Brianna Ghey (PA)So where did it go wrong for the teens as they descended into a lust for violence and why did they end Brianna's life? The pair, who were sentenced to life behind bars, met at Culcheth High School, where the girl had been asked to leave for supplying cannabis gummies to a younger pupil. She later joined Brianna's school, Birchwood High School, in 2022, and became instantly infatuated.
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Misfortunate to cross her path, unbeknown Brianna befriended Jenkinson after she was complimented on her eyeliner. The killer found her "different" and "fascinating", which soon became a deadly obsession ending in a brutal murder.
Brianna, despite having thousands of followers on TikTok, was in truth, vulnerable, nervous and anxious, as stated by her parents, with few friends and who rarely left home. Jenkinson spoke of the victim with Ratcliffe over 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.
The twisted teens conjured up a hit list including one boy described as a 'nonce', two 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, Ratcliffe considered how to ask her out in the days following for Valentine's Day.
At today's sentencing, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC noted that "hostility relating to the deceased's transgender identity" and "whether it was a murder involving sadistic conduct" could be considered aggravating features. She told the court that the former may apply if "the offence was motivated wholly or partly towards persons who are transgender".
She added: "There is evidence capable of proving this offence was motivated in part by Brianna's transgender identity. While the court will want to give consideration to the defendants' age and immaturity, and on the so-called kill list, there were other children who were not transgender.
Brianna was a vulnerable victim in Jenkinson and Ratcliffe's plot to murder (PA)"Nevertheless, there is evidence that the murder of Brianna was motivated by hostility towards her transgender. In Eddie's case, he spoke about Brianna in disparaging terms in respect of her transgender identity.
"In Scarlett's case, although she did not use language to that extent, it can be inferred she encouraged Eddie to kill Brianna knowingly his transphobic attitudes would make him more likely to do so. If the court is not satisfied that any such hostility would justify an uplift to the starting point, it nevertheless may amount to an aggravating feature."
However Richard Littler KC, defending Ratcliffe, denied the murder was motivated by transphobia. He said: "The fact that Brianna was trans is immaterial. This is nothing to do with gender at all. Finding a few offensive comments made by an autistic adolescent does not satisfy the court to a criminal standard, of effectively a hate-crime, motivation. They were juvenile and immature."
Mr Littler citing the psychiatric report on Jenkinson, said the "box is well and truly ticked" for her on whether the crime had an element of sadism. Citing what Jenkinson had told the psychiatrist about the stabbing, he continued: "It made her feel excited and that excitement made her stab more times. She liked having complete power over someone and enjoyed the power she had over someone weaker.
"She was thrilled by thoughts of violence, she was sometimes sexually aroused by it. She had increasing interest in violence, torture, murder, weapons, serial killers, fuelled and re-enforce by documentaries and dark web materials on these subjects."
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Brianna's mum Esther Ghey arrives at Manchester Crown Court for the hearing (PA)Speaking at Manchester Crown Court today (Friday, February 2) ahead of the pair's sentencing for murder, Brianna's mother Esther laid out her own beliefs about why her daughter was chosen for the vicious murder. She said: "I don't believe that someone who is so disturbed and obsessed with murder and torture would ever be able to be rehabilitated.
"I have moments where I feel sorry for them, because they have also ruined their own lives, but I have to remember that they felt no empathy for Brianna when they left her bleeding to death after their premeditated and vicious attack, which was carried out not because Brianna had done anything wrong, but just because one hated trans people and the other thought it would be fun."
And in another statement read out in court, Brianna's stepfather Wesley Powell said: "Brianna had a large online following but in reality she was lonely, vulnerable and in need of a close friend. Both Eddie and Scarlett knew this and preyed upon her vulnerabilities, acting as two predators stalking their prey."
What was evident in the trial was Jenkinson's fixation with the dark web, where from the age of 14, 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.
This is the 'crumpled' handwritten note detailing a 'plan to kill' Brianna Ghey (MEN Media)Photographs released by Cheshire Police at today's sentencing show pages in a notebook Jenkinson secretly kept in her bedroom, where she made notes on her dark fantasies. 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.
Detectives say her "thirst for killing" grew over time, which was shared with Ratcliffe, neither blindly leading the other. 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?"
Scarlett Jenkinson (marked X) and Eddie Ratcliffe (marked as Y) meeting Brianna Ghey (marked as BG) at a bus stop (Cheshire Constabulary)But it wasn't a one-man show as they lived in a "cocoon world they alone inhabited", and Ratcliffe suggested various poisons and medieval torture weapons they could use on their prey, displaying a preoccupation with weapons including tomahawks and shurikens.
In a police interview, Ratcliffe revealed that Jenkinson called herself a santanist. He said: "I don’t really try and object to what she [Jenkinson] was saying. She was just trying to convince me, telling me how mentally unstable she is or something.
"She always says about killing things and jokes about stabbing things, watching torture videos. She was saying about how she was a satanist. She would joke about it. 'I'll stab your nan, s**g your cat'."
Knowing Brianna was depressed, the pair first tried to end her life with an overdose of tablets, but when it failed, Jenkinson persuaded her to leave her home and meet at Linear Park in Culcheth. She disclosed to Ratcliffe that she wanted to stab the teen "jus coz it's fun lol… I want to see the pure horror on her face and hear her scream".
The girl was instructed by the killer to get a single bus ticket, while Ratcliffe was reminded to bring his knife, which he purchased whilst on a skiing holiday. Before the premeditated knife frenzy, the pair already discussed a distraction tactic and how they would stab the victim.
Seconds after Brianna was left for dead, Jenkinson went home to play video games after exchanging jokey texts with Ratcliffe. When Brianna was named, she posted a 'rest in peace' photo tribute on Snapchat, saying: "Brianna was one of the best people I have ever met and such an amazing friend it's so f****** sickening what got done to her."
An hour later, she was arrested, where she laughed 17 times during her lying account to police detectives. "I'm good at hiding stuff and playing the victim," she had told Ratcliffe.
Scarlett's lies were pulled apart by police (PA)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.
Jenkinson, who drew up a second kill list of staff at the secure youth accommodation where she was being held, had been examined by Dr Richard Church, a consultant forensic psychiatrist. The doctor concluded she did not have a mental illness but presents with a severe "conduct dissocial disorder with limited pro-social emotions".
Ms Heer concluded: "In Scarlett’s case, she knew what she was doing was wrong and she knew it was very wrong." In Ratcliffe’s case, Dr Michael Crawford, another consultant forensic psychiatrist, concluded he has a mild form of autism and selective mutism.
Both tried to blame each other for the horror, but today 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".
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."
Addressing both defendants, Judge Mrs Justice Yip announced on Friday: "Scarlett and Eddie, you are to be sentenced for murder, you are to be detained at his majesty's pleasure, which, as you know, is a life sentence. I must also set a minimum term before you can be considered for release.
"You will only be released if in the future it is decided you no longer present a danger. That decision will be for the Parole Board. Brianna was only 16-years-old. She had her whole life ahead of her. This case is unusual and it has shocked the public."
Mrs Justice Yip described Brianna's murder as 'exceptionally brutal' as she sentenced the twisted killersPicking apart their 'difference' in reasoning, Mrs Yip told Jenkinson that her "motivation was to act out fantasies... The messages show you wanted to make a real victim feel pain and fear."
The judge described the killing as 'exceptionally brutal' and that her primary motive was her 'deep desire to kill'. Addressing the pair, she continued: "This was a murder involving sadistic conduct.
"You both took part in a brutal and planned murder which was sadistic in nature, and where a secondary motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity. This was a murder of particularly high seriousness.
"You picked Brianna because you both thought she would be an easy target. She thought you [Jenkinson] were her friend." Addressing Ratcliffe, she said: "It would in my judgement be wholly wrong to treat you as being under Scarlett's control. On the other hand I acknowledge that you were not the driving force behind the plan to kill Brianna, Scarlett was.
"In your messages about Brianna, you undoubtedly directed hostility towards her based on her transgender identity." The judge said Ratcliffe explained that he may have picked up the 'dehumanising' language from other people. But the judge told him: "I'm satisfied you are quite capable of holding your own views."
The judge handed Jenkinson a minimum term of 22 years and Ratcliffe a minimum term of 20 years.