Brianna unlawful killing could not have been foreseen, coroner rules

Teenager Brianna Ghey was unlawfully killed by her classmate and her friend but their schools or local authority could not have foreseen her murder, a coroner has ruled.

Anxious and vulnerable, unsuspecting Brianna, 16, was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back after being lured to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11 last year.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time, were jailed for life for the “sadistic” murder of the transgender teenager.

Brianna had been a pupil at Birchwood High School, Warrington, where she was befriended by Jenkinson who had transferred from Culcheth High School after she “spiked” a younger pupil with cannabis-laced sweets.

Following her “managed transfer” from Culcheth, where Ratcliffe was a pupil, within weeks Jenkinson became obsessed by Brianna and began plotting her murder with Ratcliffe.

From age 14, Jenkinson had enjoyed watching videos of real killing and torture on the dark web, fantasised about murder and developed an interest in serial killers, her murder trial heard.

But their “dark fantasies” were not known to either school or any other adults, their trial heard.

The three-day inquest at Warrington Coroner’s Court examined safeguarding for all three teenagers and how Brianna was brought into contact with Jenkinson.

But the hearing was told despite Jenkinson’s misbehaviour in school, no one could have foreseen she was planning and would go on to murder Brianna.

Concluding the inquest, Jacqueline Devonish, senior coroner for Cheshire, said: “There was no reason for anyone to suspect the friendship was anything other than genuine.

“I found Birchwood High School offered Brianna a high standard of support within a caring environment.”

Ms Devonish said there were no visible signs that Brianna was at risk from Jenkinson.

She added: “She had been planning Brianna’s murder since late 2022. Eddie Ratcliffe was the only person who knew, other than Scarlett Jenkinson.

“I found that the schools could not have reasonably foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe would have plotted and murdered Brianna.

“It could not have, on the evidence available at the time, reasonably have been foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson was mentally unstable so that she would kill.”

Both Brianna and Jenkinson had a history of self-harm and personal issues affecting their schooling.

Jenkinson had also assaulted another pupil and turned up for class drunk and smelling of cannabis.

Brianna was diagnosed with autism and ADHD and was transitioning gender.

Esther Ghey, her mother, said her daughter had become “immersed in darkness”, falling behind in schoolwork and spending a lot of time online, garnering thousands of followers on TikTok and YouTube by posting video content.

But Ms Ghey said her daughter’s online world was “very toxic” and she was deemed to be at risk of sexual exploitation.

Before her murder concerns had been raised about her interactions online but she had refused to let her mother have access to her phone and her school could not take the device off her either, the hearing was told.

Esther Ghey is now campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of social media to children and for greater parental controls to be put in place.

Jenkinson must serve a minimum of 22 years before being eligible for parole and Ratcliffe 20 years.