Jurors in the Brianna Ghey murder trial have been told that one suspect "threw the other under the bus" after the teenager was stabbed to death.
A girl and a boy, both of whom are aged 16 and cannot be named for legal reasons, are currently standing trial at Manchester Crown Court charged with murdering the 16-year-old, who was knifed 28 times in the head, neck, back and chest during a "sustained and violent assault" in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington on February 11 this year. Girl X, from Warrington, and Boy Y, from Leigh, both deny this count and "blame each other".
Deanna Heer KC told the court during the prosecution's opening last month that messages between the two youths in the weeks and months before the stabbing "showed a preoccupation with violence and torture and death". The then 15-year-olds were also said to have discussed killing other children who they knew.
READ MORE: Brianna Ghey live court updates as murder trial continues
Ms Heer delivered her closing speech to a jury of seven men and five women today, Monday. She told the court that the messages were a "window into the defendants' minds" and showed "in black and white" that they had encouraged one another to kill Brianna.
Jurors heard that their actions in the aftermath "dispelled any doubt once and for all" whether they were "in it together". Ms Heer said that Girl X "couldn't explain why" she had deleted a Snapchat conversation with Brianna at 15.06pm, around the time she was killed and showed that her "tampering with the evidence at that time" had "showed just how cool and calculated she was".
She also referred to a message sent from Brianna's phone to Girl X's at this point, which read "girl, where are you?". The prosecutor said: "That message, you may think, was a message sent by Girl X.
"It is the only logical explanation. Brianna would have been able to see her.
"You can see for miles down that path. She would have been able to see where Girl X was."
Ms Heer described this as an attempt to "set up an alibi for herself", and said that the two defendants had "picked up as if nothing had happened" in their messages after they returned home and "made jokes" to one another about their cats. She continued her address by saying: "We see them keeping each other informed on the investigation as it was being reported in the media.
"They seem confident about their position. Girl X can’t help but let other people know about the killing.
"She’s sending press reports to Boy R and Boy M, people she has expressed the desire to kill. Is that a coincidence, or is she enjoying the fact she knows she’s carried out a killing?
"We know Girl X sends those fake messages asking why Brianna had ditched them for a random man from Manchester. She knew Brianna was dead, and this was a deliberate attempt to throw the police off the scent.
"She tells her mother the same lie. Her mother calls the police, and she gives the same lying story to the police about Brianna going off with some lad from Manchester.
"She uploaded that picture of Brianna to Snapchat, in which she had said rest in peace. She told you it was a memorial to Brianna.
"Do you accept that? Not a fitting memorial you may think, but a clear attempt to play innocent."
But Ms Heer said that Boy Y had then "wasted no time in placing the blame on Girl X" once arrested the following day and interviewed by detectives. She told the jury: "For all their careful planning, it doesn’t seem to be the case that either of them contemplated the possibility that they might be caught.
"They hadn’t thought about what they were going to say to the police. No doubt, they thought they were too clever to be caught.
"As the penny drops, Girl X takes steps to make sure she and Boy Y are singing from the same hymn sheet. Protecting him, protecting herself, still acting together.
"Boy Y on the other hand appears to be having doubts. He didn’t respond to her message telling him to stick to the story or answer her phone calls.
"Is the truth, in fact, that it was Boy Y who was starting to get paranoid about what Girl X may say about him and decided to effectively throw Girl X under the bus at that stage, knowing what she was going to say about those events? He had the advantage.
"He wasted no time in placing all the blame on Girl X, figuring out that he would have to blame her before she blamed him. The game was effectively up and, since then, they have blamed one another.
"The prosecution submit the evidence couldn’t be clearer. These two defendants were in it together throughout.
"Neither one of them took the lead, neither played along. By the time they met in Culcheth on February 11, both knew what they were going to do, not in fantasy but in real life.
"That’s why Boy Y took his hunting knife. That’s why Girl X lied to Brianna to persuade her to come out.
"That’s why they took her to that place and lied to keep her there until there was no one else around. Then they killed her in just the way they said they would – stab her in the neck, slit her throat.
"Boy Y stabs her in the back. We know that she was stabbed in the back.
"While Girl X stabs her in the stomach. We know that she was stabbed in the stomach.
"But it didn’t stop there. Brianna was stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.
"She stood no chance. She was outnumbered, two on one, and facing a hunting knife thrust into her again and again with considerable force."
The trial, before Mrs Justice Yip, continues. It is expected to last around four weeks in total.
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