Brianna Ghey's mum gives moving speech at vigil year on since teen's murder
Brianna Ghey's mother has made an emotional appearance at a vigil in memorial of the trans teenager to mark a year since her murder.
Brianna was just 16 when she was murdered by two teenagers in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire. The transgender teen was stabbed to death on February 11, 2023, after being lured to a park by two 15-year-olds she believed were her friends.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were convicted in December 2023 of the murder of the transgender student, also 16, after she was fatally stabbed 28 times in a frenzied attack.
The identities of the pair were originally protected under law due to their ages, but the judge opted to lift this. After the two teenagers were found guilty on December 20, Honourable Mrs Justice Yip announced that the media would be able to name them on the day they were sentenced on February 2 2024.
Esther was visibly emotional as she spoke to the crowd before a two-minute silence was impeccably observed (SWNS SWNS)
A vigil has been held to mark one year since the murder of Brianna Ghey. (SWNS SWNS)Today's vigil, held at Warrington's Golden Square Shopping Centre, was attended by Brianna's mother and other members of her family – with school friends reading moving statements of their loving memories of her and a number of emotional musical performances in front of a packed crowd.
Girl, 16, stabbed to death in park - and police want to speak to man and woman
Esther told the crowd: "I will be forever thankful that I was able to spend 16 years with Brianna, she taught me so much and gave me so much peace and love.
Crowds were seen to becoming emotional as the vigil began at around 3pm (CHRIS NEILL)"If there was one piece of advice I could give to any parent, it would be to hold your kids tight and tell them that you love them." As soon as Esther finished speaking a two-minute silence was impeccably observed, during which time the crowd held up torches on phones.Since Brianna's death, Esther is now campaigning for under-16s to be blocked from accessing social media on smartphones and stronger parental controls to flag potentially harmful searches to parents, in the wake of the sentencing of her daughter’s killers.
Brianna Ghey's friends and family have been reading moving statements at an event in Warrington (Cheshire Police / SWNS)
Members of the crowd were visibly emotional throughout a number of speeches and performances (SWNS)Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were both 15 when they killed Brianna, 16, with a hunting knife after luring her to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on February 11 last year. Jenkinson had previously watched videos of torture and murder online.
Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of communications regulator Ofcom, said she would be happy to meet Ms Ghey to discuss her proposals, and Ms Ghey also said she would welcome the chance to speak to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the issue.
The event was attended by hundreds of people (SWNS)Asked what changes she would like to see made in the smartphone industry, Ms Ghey previously told BBC Breakfast: “We’d like to see mobile phone companies take more responsibility. I would like to see the law change so that children only have access to children’s mobile phones, and that could look exactly the same as an adult’s mobile phone but without the ability to download social media apps, and there is software available already.
Brianna was murdered on February 11 2023 (CHRIS NEILL)“Schools use it and we could link it up to a parent’s phone and if any words are being searched like the words that were searched during the run-up (to Brianna’s murder)… it could be flagged up on a parent’s phone, and then parents are aware of any concerning things that children are looking at.”
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