✕CloseCCTV footage shows Brianna Ghey on bus to Culcheth on day she was stabbed to death
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Brianna Ghey’s mother has said she will not forgive her daughter’s killers as the “warped” teenagers were found guilty of the 16-year-old’s brutal murder.
Brianna, 16, was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of 11 February.
Following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, the two teenagers accused, identified only as girl X and boy Y, both now aged 16 but 15 at the time, were convicted of murder on Wednesday and are now facing mandatory jail terms for life.
Speaking outside court, Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey said her daughter’s killers have not shown “an ounce of remorse” and she has therefore lost any sympathy she previously felt for them.
Also outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans, head of crime at Cheshire Police, described the young murderers as “two very warped individuals” who had a “thirst for killing”.
The trial heard the pair had a fascination for violence, torture and murder and had planned Brianna’s killing for weeks, detailed in a handwritten murder plan and phone messages found by detectives.
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Killer said she was ‘obsessed’ with Brianna Ghey
The court heard that teenager X told Y over WhatsApp that she was “obsessed” with Brianna, and police would find a crumpled handwritten plan to kill her on X’s bedroom floor.
Searching X’s home after her arrest, officers found the note headed “Saturday, 11th February, 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey,” with the word “plan” written underneath and a smiley face and a heart shape drawn on the top right-hand corner.
The note read: “Meet [boy Y] at wooden posts 1pm. Walk down to library, bus stop. Wait until Brianna gets off bus, then the 3 of us walk to Linear Park. Go to the pipe/tunnel area. I say code word to [boy Y]. He stabs her in the back as I stab her in stomach. [Boy Y] drags the body into the area. We both cover up the area with logs etc.”
Andy Gregory21 December 2023 03:011703124180
Brianna Ghey’s killer sent picture of murder weapon on New Year’s Day
The girl convicted of Brianna Ghey’s murder said she had a knife like the one used by the murderous barber Sweeney Todd, a character she appeared to idolise after having seen the film of the same name “9,000 times”.
The court heard that the teenage boy convicted of her murder sent an image of the weapon used to murder Brianna on New Year’s Day.
The £13.50 wooden-handled hunting knife was found in his bedroom with Brianna’s blood on it and his DNA on the handle. His internet browsing history from the end of last year also showed searches on various poisons, including VX nerve agents, sarin and tabun.
Andy Gregory21 December 2023 02:031703120460
Boy accused of murdering Brianna Ghey claimed to be ‘admiring trees’ during stabbing
The teenage boy accused of murdering transgender teenager Brianna Ghey claimed he was “admiring trees” at the time of her stabbing – as he blamed his co-defendant for the teenager’s death.
Boy Y told the trial his hunting knife had been used to stab Brianna but claimed girl X, his 16-year-old co-defendant, who also can’t be named because of her age, was the one who carried out the fatal attack.
My colleague Matt Mathers reports:
Boy accused of murdering Brianna Ghey was ‘admiring trees’ during stabbing
The teenager was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in an attack in a park near Warrington earlier this year
Andy Gregory21 December 2023 01:011703116763
Watch: Parents of Brianna Ghey deliver statements
Parents of Brianna Ghey deliver statements after two teenagers found guilty of murderAndy Gregory20 December 2023 23:591703113103
Brianna Ghey’s father hails ‘beautiful girl to be proud of'
Peter Spooner, Brianna’s father, said it “breaks” him daily to know he will never see his daughter again.
“It is impossible to put into words how the murder of my child has affected me,” he told reporters. “I never stopped loving her and I never will. When she was little I remember the faces she would pull to make me laugh.
“The cheeky giggle, the funny dances, are engraved in my memory. I knew she was going to be a star and the amount of support she received from the followers on TikTok proved this.
“I was so proud of what she could do.”
Referring to her “amazing talent”, he added: “I look into her eyes and they shine back at me, and I know she was a beautiful girl to be proud of.”
Andy Gregory20 December 2023 22:581703109743
Prosecutor says ‘planning, violence and age of killers is beyond belief’
A prosecutor called Brianna Ghey’s murder “one of the most distressing cases I have ever dealt with”.
Deputy chief crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “This has been one of the most distressing cases I have ever dealt 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 their dark fantasies about murder into a reality. The extensive messages between the two, planning and plotting to kill people, talking of murder, torture and cruelty, were difficult to read.
“The messages provided a terrifying insight into the minds of the two defendants – but also revealed the detailed planning of their attack and subsequent attempts to cover it up.”
Andy Gregory20 December 2023 22:021703106992
Killers had discussed murdering other children prior to Brianna Ghey
Teenager X, who described herself as a Satanist, told the jury she began to fantasise about killing people from as young as age 14, around the time she began to take an interest in “dark materials”, such as films of murder, torture and serial killers found on the dark web via an app she had downloaded.
As early as October, X and Y had discussed the killing of another child, boy M, in messages shown to jurors, with X saying: “If we kill boy M, can I keep some things, a couple of teeth and an eye.”
After being blocked on a fake Instagram account by one of their targets, boy E, the girl and boy moved their attention to Brianna. Jurors were told X messaged Y, “I want to see pure horror on her face and hear her scream in pain,” to which the boy replied: “Really? All I wanted to see is what size d**k it had.”
After trying and failing to murder Brianna with the ibuprofen gel tablets in January, the pair then decided to stab the 16-year-old to death in Linear Park on 28 January, heard the court. Brianna did not show up to meet them then – but she did two weeks later.
Tara Cobham20 December 2023 21:161703104832
Brianna Ghey told mother she was ‘scared’ in final text message
The jury heard that Brianna Ghey, who did not tend to go out on her own, was travelling on the bus to meet girl X when she messaged her mother for the last time, telling her, “I’m on the bus by myself, I’m scared.”
Brianna, X and Y arrived at the park together – but, at 3.06pm, Brianna messaged X: “Girl where are you?”
Seven minutes later, a distressed 999 call, later played to jurors, was made by dog walker Kathryn Vize, reporting that somebody had been attacked and she had seen the attackers run away.
Tara Cobham20 December 2023 20:401703103092
How Brianna Ghey’s killers acted on day after her death
The day after murdering Brianna, the teenage girl messaged her saying: “Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park it’s on news everywhere. And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf. That is so f***** up.”
Meanwhile, the boy was online using the Crown Prosecution Service website, looking up penalties for supplying or withholding information.
X then posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat, describing her as an “amazing friend” and that what had happened was “so f****** sickening”.
Tara Cobham20 December 2023 20:111703101712
Teenager X made lists of types of serial killers, court told
A list of types of serial killers was written down in teenager X’s black Pukka notebook, including mass murderers, psychopathic sexual sadists and copycat killers, and notes about “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy, a US serial killer, junior prosecution counsel Cheryl Mottram told jurors during the trial.
Among the pages were other notes made on Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman.
Tara Cobham20 December 2023 19:48NewerOlder✕
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