Murder-obsessed 16-year-olds convicted of killing girl who was stabbed 28 times in Warrington park

Two 16-year-olds have been found guilty of the “senseless” murder of Brianna Ghey, a “witty, funny and fearless” transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times in a Warrington park this year.

The murder-obsessed teenagers, known as Girl X and Boy Y to protect their identities, were found guilty unanimously by a jury at Manchester crown court on Wednesday after it deliberated for four hours and 40 minutes.

The judge, Mrs Justice Yip, said she would sentence the pair next month, and would decide whether to lift reporting restrictions so that the killers could be named.

She told the teenagers that she would have to impose a life sentence but that she needed to adjourn for further reports to decide on the minimum tariff they must serve.

The pair showed no reaction to the verdicts, but their mothers wept in the court. Afterwards, Brianna’s mother urged “empathy and compassion” for the killers’ parents, saying they “too have lost a child and must live the rest of their lives knowing what their child has done”.

Girl X, who was fascinated by serial killers and boasted of watching torture videos on the dark web, said she was “obsessed” with Brianna. She and Brianna had been friends for a few months before she began plotting to kill her, along with Y.

Vigils were held for Brianna, 16, after her murder prompted particular sorrow and fear among trans people, though Cheshire police said from the start they did not believe she was killed for being trans.

Nigel Parr, senior investigating officer for Cheshire police, said Brianna had been betrayed by two teenagers whose only motivation was to experience how it felt to kill. “This was a senseless murder committed by two teenagers who have an obsession with murder,” he added.

Y had never met Brianna until the day of the murder, which took place in the middle of the afternoon in Culcheth Linear Park on 11 February. The teenagers were disturbed by a couple walking their dog, and ran away, before being captured on CCTV making their way home calmly.

The defendants exchanged thousands of WhatsApp messages in the run-up to the murder, discussing various children they wanted to kill. Plans to murder another boy were abandoned when they failed to lure him to Culcheth Linear Park, and so they switched their focus to Brianna, who, the court heard, did not go out much and had anxiety.

The boy referred to Brianna as “prey” and “it” in his messages, saying she would be easier to kill “and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl”.

Though X and Y had been friends since they were 11, they turned on each other after their arrests. The girl initially made up a story about Brianna “going off with some lad from Manchester”, before changing her defence to claim that the boy was responsible for killing her.

Y blamed the murder on X, saying he was urinating against a tree in the park when he turned around to see X stabbing Brianna.

The jury was told they did not have to decide which one of the teenagers stabbed Brianna to find them guilty of the joint enterprise murder.

Y told police the girl was “not a normal person” and that she claimed to be a satanist in year 8. He said she told him she had killed twice before, but that he was not sure whether to believe her because the murders had not been on the news. Police could find no evidence of other killings.

After detectives confronted Boy Y with the forensic evidence against him – including Brianna’s blood on a hunting knife found in his bedroom, as well as on his trainers and clothes – he stopped talking and has been mute since being taken into secure custody, talking only to his mother.

Highly unusually, the boy was allowed to give evidence via text. Special arrangements were made for the barristers’ questions to be typed for him, and he typed his replies, which were read to the jury.

He and Girl X were provided with intermediaries, who sat with them in the dock to make sure they understood the court process, along with security staff. The pair did not speak to each other, and avoided making eye contact when they were together.

Their parents were in court most days, with Brianna’s family watching upstairs from the public gallery.

Earlier this year, Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, told the Guardian that while her daughter had anxiety and mental health problems, she was “very outgoing and very confident” and dreamed of becoming “TikTok-famous”.

The court heard she did not go out alone often, and texted her mother on the way to meet her killers, saying she was “scared” because there were lots of people on the bus.

But she had a large following online, where her dance routines and skits drew friends from around the world. After the verdicts, Esther described her daughter as “larger than life” and “funny, witty and fearless”.

Though Girl X told the jury that Brianna was bullied at school for being trans, her head teacher insisted that was not the case.

The Birchwood community high school head, Emma Mills, told the BBC: “There was never any evidence of Brianna being bullied within school or out of school. Brianna was very much able to give as good as she got in that way.”

Brianna came out as trans aged 14 and had been living and dressing as a girl until her murder. Her mother said she supported the transition: “It didn’t bother me. It was just something that Brianna wanted to do and I was happy. As long as she was happy then that’s all that mattered.”

After the verdicts, the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This has been one of the most distressing cases the Crown Prosecution Service has had to deal with. The planning, the violence and the age of the killers is beyond belief.

“Brianna Ghey was subjected to a frenzied and ferocious attack and was stabbed 28 times in broad daylight in a public park.

“Girl X and Boy Y 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.”

  • DessertStorms@kbin.socialOP
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    1 year ago

    Just to add my personal opinion - they claim she wasn’t killed for being trans, but the article they linked to support this claim includes several examples of blatant transphobia expressed by her murderers, as well as the fact that she was more vulnerable than others, I wonder why that might have been… 😒

    RIP Brianna 🖤

      • grumpycactus@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They may have multiple targets planned, but they only murdered one person. That person was trans, and the fact that they went so far as to call her “it” and expressed wanting to see if she screamed like a man suggests that was not a non-factor in their decision making. Anti-trans sentiment would be better combatted by drawing attention to it and calling it out when it happens. Not denying that it exists or that it is significant. Obviously their desire to kill someone may be a primary motivation. But transphobia was absolutely a secondary motivation, and it does a disservice to Brianna to deny that.

      • DessertStorms@kbin.socialOP
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        1 year ago

        Seriously, you’re going to make excuses for them here?

        Having previous targets doesn’t negate their blatant transphobia, nor the fact that Brianna was vulnerable (suffered with anxiety and didn’t go out often on her own among other things) almost certainly and at least partly because she was trans, and they knew it.

        The idea that anyone in the institution is looking out to protect trans people in any of this is absurd.

        Covering up the fact that this was a hate crime just serves to minimise the extent of hate trans people have to put up with daily.

          • DessertStorms@kbin.socialOP
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            1 year ago

            OP isn’t making excuses, merely pointing out that this murder didn’t appear driven by transphobia.

            they are, when it clearly is, and so are you.

          • cerulean_blue@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Just want to say that is a really well reasoned and rational take on a complex situation. Well done.

            I wish we had more honest discussion of this quality instead of everyone jumping on one band wagon or another with no real knowledge of the situation beyond a single article.

            • DessertStorms@kbin.socialOP
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              1 year ago

              “Great going brushing that transphobia under the rug, I’m so much more comfortable not having to confront this thing I probably* contribute to” 🙄

              *ignoring is contributing, however “innocently” done

              • cerulean_blue@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                What a shame. The previous replies have been deleted. Guess we aren’t allowed to discuss difficult problems like adults on Lemmy either.

          • grumpycactus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            What similar trash could they have talked to saying they wanted to hear if she screamed like a man or not? Is it possible transphobia is one of multiple motives for their murders? Because the transphobia is certainly there, and that’s an explicit statement by one of the killers of their motives. Are we just ignoring that or explaining it away that they said it because it’s talking trash? If that’s the case why should we believe they just wanted to experience killing somebody? That’s based on what they said too. Why believe one and not the other? Why is it so hard to believe they’re transphobes, but not that they’re murderers?

          • snooggums@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I would personally be fine with someone who uses slurs in the context of their crimes to be assumed to have bigotry/homophobia/racism/transphobia/etc. as a significant part ofntheir motive with a possible option to prove it wasn’t a reason at this point.

            • shalafi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Well, that’s usually how it goes in America. Call someone a n****r and engage in violence against them? Hate crime.

              • snooggums@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                That happens extremely rarely in the US, there is way more latitude given to racists and a need to have them almost say word for word that they are only doing it because of race.

      • FfaerieOxide@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The transphobic related charges could inflame the public debate against transgender people.

        Can’t address transphobia, 'cause it might make an isle of transphobe transphobia even harder.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.socialOP
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          1 year ago

          Right???
          The fucking mental gymnastics it takes to make that leap is beyond my grasp… 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️