Two 16-year-old teenagers were sentenced on Friday February 2 to life imprisonment for the stabbing murder of young transgender Brianna Ghey, which caused great emotion last year in the United Kingdom.
Reflecting the shock caused, the Manchester court took the exceptional decision to reveal the names of these two minors, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, described during the inquest as being fascinated by
"violence, torture and death »
, with a real
“thirst to kill”
.
Judge Amanda Yip described the murder as
“brutal and planned, sadistic in nature”
, while handing down their sentence, accompanied by security sentences of 22 years and 20 years respectively, of rare severity for minors.
On February 11, 2023, young Brianna, 16, was stabbed around thirty times in the head, neck, chest and back with a hunting knife, after being lured to a park near Warrington in the Liverpool area, northwest England, where she resided.
During a grueling four-week trial, the two teenagers blamed each other for the murder.
They were both finally found guilty in December, without this verdict provoking any reaction from them.
Days later, Scarlett Jenkinson admitted for the first time to a psychiatrist that she stabbed Brianna, prosecutor Deanna Heer told the court Friday.
The young girl thus confessed to having
“snatched the knife from the hands of Eddie”
, who did not know Brianna before the murder, and dealt the majority of the blows, she reported, saying she was
“satisfied and excited by what 'she was doing"
.
Before taking the act, these young people, identified until then as
“Boy Y”
and
“Girl X”
and who grew up in families considered stable, had planned the murder of the teenager for weeks by sending dozens of text messages.
The accused had also sent her co-accused a photo of a handwritten note indicating:
“Saturday February 11, 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey”
, detailing each step by which they intended to go about killing her.
If certain messages from Eddie Ratcliffe include “transphobic”
comments
against Brianna, the motivation for Scarlett Jenkinson’s action was
“the desire to kill
,” the judge underlined.
“Obsessed with murder”
The victim's mother Esther Ghey, who did not have the strength to read her statement herself in court, said she struggled to accept that Brianna had been betrayed by Scarlett Jenkinson, whom she considered his friend.
According to the investigation, this teenager who seemed at first glance to be a
“normal child, from a normal family”
was fascinated by serial killers, torture videos, and
“obsessed with Brianna”
.
“I don't believe that a person so disturbed and obsessed with murder and torture can one day be rehabilitated,”
said Esther Ghey, insisting on the fact that the teenagers had shown no remorse during the hearing.
The investigation revealed that the two accused suffered, among other things, from autistic disorders, Eddie Ratcliffe having
“gradually stopped speaking”
after his arrest.
He testified by typing on a keyboard during the trial.
The accused, who were only 15 years old at the time, also kept a
“kill list”
with the names of other potential victims.
“This is one of the most disturbing cases I have ever had to deal with.
The planning, the violence and the age of the killers are beyond comprehension
,” admitted prosecutor Ursula Doyle.
The death of the young girl has aroused strong emotion in the United Kingdom, where the rights of transgender people have sparked fierce debates.
Thousands of people paid tribute to her during candlelight vigils organized in several cities across the country, calling for
“protecting trans youth”
and
“justice for Brianna”
.
“The Prime Minister shares the country's horror at this despicable and cowardly murder
,” a Downing Street spokesperson said on Friday.
After the murder, police found a jacket with traces of Brianna's blood in Scarlett Jenkinson's bedroom, and the blood-stained murder weapon at Eddie Ratcliffe's house.