Parents of Brianna Ghey suggest daughter’s killers should never be released

The killers, who were both 15 at the time, were named as Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe ahead of their sentencing for Brianna’s murder on Friday.

Brianna, who was 16, was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times after being lured to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11 last year.

They were found guilty following a trial late last year and a judge lifted an order banning reporting of their identities on Friday morning.

Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey told Manchester Crown Court she felt her daughter’s killers, who were both obsessed with murder and torture, still pose a danger to society.

In a victim impact statement read by a prosecution barrister as she was too upset to read it herself, Ms Ghey 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.”

She added that the fact she thought one of them was her daughter’s friend was the “hardest thing” to come to terms with.

She told the court she had been “pleased” when Brianna sent a text message before the attack to say she was going to meet a friend.

She added: “I thought that she would have a wonderful time, hanging around with her friend and getting some fresh air.

“When all that time she was being lured to her death.

“All I can think about is that she would have been scared and I wasn’t there for her.

“She needed me to protect her, Brianna wasn’t a fighter and she must have been so terrified.”

Brianna’s father Peter Spooner said “no amount of time spent in prison will be enough for these monsters”.

He branded his daughter’s killers “pure evil” and told the court they had “stolen” the new relationship he was forming with Brianna after she came out as transgender.

He said: “We were forming a new relationship and these two murderers have stolen that from us both.

“I hate how Brianna’s life has been brutally taken away from her and she has been deprived of the life she wanted to live.

“She never had the chance to sit her exams or go on to further education.

“Now my world has been torn apart, justice may have been done with the guilty verdicts, but no amount of time spent in prison will be enough for these monsters.

“I cannot call them children as that makes them sound naive or vulnerable, which they are not, they are pure evil. Brianna was the vulnerable one.”

Brianna’s stepfather Wesley Powell said in his statement: “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.”

The sentencing continues in front of Mrs Justice Yip.

After the statements were read she said: “They were very moving statements. I can feel the emotion in the courtroom.”