On 11 February 2023, Brianna Ghey ( JEYE), a 16-year-old English transgender girl, was murdered in a premeditated attack by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe. After being lured into Culcheth Linear Park by Jenkinson, Ghey was fatally stabbed.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, both aged 15 at the time, were arrested the day after the attack, and were eventually charged with murder. The pair were convicted on 20 December 2023 at Manchester Crown Court and were sentenced on 2 February 2024 to be detained at His Majesty's pleasure, with a minimum of 22 years for Jenkinson and 20 years for Ratcliffe, before being eligible for parole. The court concluded that the offence was primarily motivated by sadistic tendencies and that transphobia was a secondary motive for Ratcliffe.
Background
Brianna Ghey
Brianna Ghey ( JY; 7 November 2006 – 11 February 2023) was a 16-year-old transgender girl and a Year 11 pupil at Birchwood Community High School in the Birchwood area of Warrington.
As a teenager, Ghey was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, which her mother said impaired her ability to identify dangerous situations, as well as anxiety. These diagnoses also meant that Ghey did not participate in regular lessons and required one-on-one tutoring in her school's inclusion room, where Ghey eventually met Jenkinson.
According to her friends, Ghey often helped younger transgender girls to safely and legally get transgender hormone therapy. She reportedly faced years of transphobic harassment and bullying, including at school, a part of which was being repeatedly "gang beaten". However, in a statement reportedly approved by Ghey's mother, Birchwood's headteacher denied that Ghey had faced bullying at school.
Ghey was a TikToker, with her number of followers variously reported as 11,000, 31,000, and 63,000. On TikTok, she mimed and danced to popular songs. One of her final TikToks said that she was "excluded from school". After her death, her TikTok account was deleted.
Perpetrators
Scarlett Jenkinson had attended Culcheth High School alongside Ratcliffe. She faced permanent exclusion after an incident on 27 September 2022, in which she brought cannabidiol-infused edibles into school, giving them to a younger classmate, who then fell ill. The incident, which police recorded as a spiking, occurred four months before Jenkinson would first attempt to murder Ghey, by poisoning her with ibuprofen tablets.
As an alternative to exclusion, Jenkinson was allowed to transfer to Birchwood, where she met and formed a friendship with Ghey. In text messages with Ratcliffe, Jenkinson revealed that she was obsessed with Ghey. In an interview with Richard Church, a child psychiatrist, Jenkinson stated that she felt as if she were about to lose Ghey as a friend, and that she wanted to "kill her so she would always be with her".
Before the murder, Jenkinson displayed a fascination with serial killers, watching documentaries and keeping notes about notorious killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy. She reportedly used the Tor browser to access videos of torture and murder on the dark web.
Eddie Ratcliffe, a pupil at Culcheth High School at the time of the murder, was described by a fellow student as a role model who achieved top grades. Ratcliffe first met Jenkinson in school at age 11. In 2018, he competed at a kickboxing championship organised by ISKA in Jamaica as an amateur kickboxer.
Described in one of Jenkinson's notebooks as intelligent but socially awkward, Ratcliffe was known to be a loner. According to neighbours, he never showed any signs of violence prior to the murder. Ratcliffe had a fascination with knives and also collected blades; he bought the hunting knife used for the murder during a skiing trip to Bulgaria.
Murder
On the morning of 11 February 2023, Ghey was messaged by Jenkinson, instructing her to take a bus to Culcheth Library later that afternoon. At 12:45 pm, Ghey was captured on a doorbell camera leaving her house in Birchwood. While leaving, Ghey messaged her mother about meeting up with Jenkinson. Following Jenkinson's directions, Ghey walked 25 minutes to the Birchwood railway station and boarded a bus at 1:38 pm, after which she texted her mother.
At 1:53 pm, Ghey met with Jenkinson and her friend Eddie Ratcliffe, whom Ghey had not met before, at the bus stop outside the library. At 2:02 pm, they were last seen on CCTV heading towards Culcheth Linear Park, where multiple eyewitnesses saw them walking together. Exchanging messages on Snapchat, Ghey, whom Jenkinson had lured under the impression that they were going to take drugs, sent a message to Jenkinson at 2:15 pm, "Girl, Ima wait where I am until we have drugs lol. I'm too anxious." Jenkinson, posing as a fake dealer on Snapchat, exchanged messages with herself arranging meeting plans. At 2:30 pm, Ghey, having grown suspicious of Jenkinson, messaged a friend "Scarlett is so weird girl. I think she's pretending to have a deeler [sic]." Afterwards, Ghey was attacked with a hunting knife.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were spotted from a distance by a woman walking her dog with her husband in the park. After realising they had been noticed, they fled the scene. The couple then discovered Ghey's body, face-down and bleeding heavily, and called emergency services at 3:13 pm. At 4:02 pm, Ghey was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.
Investigation
A Home Office postmortem was ordered to determine the cause of death. The examination found that Ghey had been stabbed 28 times, across her head, neck, chest, and back. Prosecutor Leanne Gallagher would later describe the attack on Ghey as "extremely brutal and punishing".
On 12 February 2023, Ratcliffe from Leigh and Jenkinson from Warrington, both 15, were arrested simultaneously at their homes by Cheshire Constabulary. Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans described the killing as a targeted attack, though initially reported that "there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related". On 14 February, police reported they were investigating "all lines of inquiry", including whether the attack had been a hate crime.
On 15 February, the suspects were charged with murder, refused bail and placed in youth detention. The next day, the suspects appeared, via video link, in a brief hearing at Liverpool Crown Court. At this hearing, judge David Aubrey remanded them in youth detention accommodation until a plea and trial preparation hearing on 2 May 2023. The accused were not required to enter a plea, and were remanded until a further hearing on 11 May. In a pre-trial hearing on 20 July 2023, one of the suspects entered a plea of not guilty. A further pre-trial hearing took place on 4 October 2023, during which the other suspect pleaded not guilty.
Trial
The trial commenced at Manchester Crown Court on 27 November 2023. Due to the nature of the case, and the ages of those involved, reporting restrictions were put in place preventing the naming of both of the defendants, as well as any other children mentioned during the trial. During the trial, Jenkinson was referred to as Girl X, and Ratcliffe as Boy Y. The case was heard by Amanda Yip, who briefed 14 potential jurors on Ghey's transgender identity, reporting restrictions concerning the defendants, and other facts of the murder ahead of the trial.
Pretrial
While in custody, Jenkinson was found to have traits of autism and ADHD; Ratcliffe was diagnosed after arrest as autistic and as having selective mutism, resulting in an inability to speak to anyone except his mother. Reasonable accommodations were made for both of the accused during the trial. Due to his selective mutism, Ratcliffe was allowed to communicate with court by typing on a computer. Both perpetrators were given the option to participate in proceedings via a video link, rather than in person. The jury were also told that their "various degrees of neurodivergence" could affect the ways both Jenkinson and Ratcliffe might react or speak in the proceedings.
Prosecution case
The prosecution was led by Deanna Heer, with Cheryl Mottram acting as the junior barrister. The prosecution case opened in the afternoon of 27 November 2023, and concluded on 8 December 2023.
The prosecution presented text message evidence that Jenkinson had previously tried to poison Ghey using an excessive amount of ibuprofen, resulting in Ghey becoming extremely sick with what her mother had thought was appendicitis. Jenkinson poisoned her believing that the murder would be mistaken for a suicidal overdose due to Ghey's mental health struggles. After Ghey survived the attempt, the defendants planned to kill her by stabbing her with a hunting knife purchased by Ratcliffe. Prior to these attempts, text messages recorded Jenkinson as admitting to being obsessed with Ghey, calling her "really different" and "really pretty". Ratcliffe also stated over text messages that he wanted "to see if it [sic] will scream like a man or a girl".
Defence case
Both Jenkinson and Ratcliffe made separate defence cases. Richard Pratt led the defence case for Jenkinson, with Sarah Holt acting as junior. Richard Littler led the defence case for Ratcliffe, with Steven Swift acting as junior.
Each defendant placed the blame for the actual killing upon the other, arguing that they themselves were only accessories to the act.
Defence for Ratcliffe said that Jenkinson had told him to bring his hunting knife to the park, and that she "had a plan to stab Brianna". Ratcliffe further stated that he did not take Jenkinson's alleged plan seriously because she had a history of "always talking about murder and nothing happens". This allegedly ended with Jenkinson stabbing Ghey to death, which he saw. He denied holding any animosity towards Ghey regarding her trans identity. Ratcliffe's defence accused Jenkinson of manipulating him due to his autism.
Jenkinson's defence held that while she may have lured Ghey to the park where she was stabbed and come up with the plan in question, it was only done so as part of a "fantasy", and that it was Ratcliffe who carried out the stabbing to Jenkinson's "shock". She described herself as not stopping the act despite her surprise, due to being afraid of Ratcliffe, describing him as a "sociopath". Jenkinson's defence also pointed out how an excess amount of Ghey's blood was later found on Ratcliffe's clothing, while none was found on Jenkinson's.
Verdict and sentencing
The trial lasted three weeks, and concluded on 20 December 2023. Both defendants were found guilty of the murder of Ghey. Jury deliberations lasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes. Yip indicated that life sentences would be forthcoming. On 21 December 2023, Yip ruled that anonymity orders that protected the identities of the convicted murderers would be lifted and they would be named during the sentencing hearing.
On 2 February 2024, the sentencing hearing was held at Manchester Crown Court, before which the two teenagers were named; the judge determined that there was "a strong public interest in the full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case". The sentencing hearing included victim impact statements from Ghey's parents and step-father. The court also heard updated assessments by psychiatrists of the perpetrators: Jenkinson has anti-social personality disorder rather than autism, and that Ratcliffe has a "mild" form of autism spectrum disorder.
Jenkinson was sentenced to be detained at His Majesty's pleasure with a minimum term of 22 years, and Ratcliffe was also detained at His Majesty's pleasure with a minimum term of 20 years. Jenkinson will be eligible to be considered for parole on 25 January 2044, while Ratcliffe will be eligible to be considered for parole on 25 January 2042.
In handing down the sentences, Yip described the murder as "sadistic in nature" and, referring to Ratcliffe, "where a secondary motive was hostility towards Ghey because of her transgender identity".
Trial aftermath
Speaking outside the Manchester Crown Court after the verdicts were issued, Ghey's mother Esther Ghey and father Peter Spooner gave statements to the media expressing grief and mourning the loss of their daughter. Despite remarking that the defendants seemed remorseless for the killing, Ghey's mother urged the public to show empathy for the families of the defendants.
After the trial, detective Mike Evans said he thought Ghey was not killed because she was transgender, but that being transgender made her "more vulnerable and accessible". Evans called the language used by Ratcliffe when talking about Ghey "dehumanising".