- Lauren Hurst & Judith Moritz & Rachel Lazzaro
- bbc news
Brianna Gee’s mother said she had “never felt so sad” after her daughter’s killer was sentenced to life in prison for murder.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe stabbed a 16-year-old transgender girl repeatedly in February 2023 after luring her to a park in Cheshire.
Brianna had 28 knife wounds, and the two blamed each other for the murder.
Esther Gay told Manchester Crown Court that Jenkinson and Ratcliffe would always “pose a danger to society”.
Mrs Justice Yip ordered Mr Jenkinson, 16, to serve a minimum of 22 years before parole.
Ratcliffe, also 16, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison before parole.
In a victim impact statement read out in court before sentencing, Ms Gee said of the killers: “I don’t want them to have the opportunity to carry out their sadistic fantasies about other children.” .
He added that the “hardest thing” to accept was learning that one of the people charged with Brianna’s murder was someone he believed was a friend of his daughter.
In a victim impact statement in Manchester court, Brianna’s sister Alisha Gee said that because “it was a friend of Brianna’s that she trusted who ended her life,” she now trusted someone new. He said he was having a hard time.
“No one can make me feel better. The only thing I can do is hear her voice and hear her laugh. I have to carry that pain for the rest of my life,” she said.
Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, said that fathering a transgender child had been “difficult to deal with,” but that he was “proud to have another beautiful daughter.” Ta.
“We were in a new relationship and these two murderers stole it from both of us,” he added.
“I hate that Brianna’s life was so brutally taken away from her and the life she wanted to live.”
He described his daughter’s killers as “pure evil” and said, “You can’t call them children because that makes them sound innocent and weak, which they really aren’t.” added.
Brianna’s stepfather, Wesley Powell, told the court that although Brianna had a large following online, she was “in reality lonely, vulnerable and in need of close friends.”
He added: “Both Eddie and Scarlett knew this, and as two predators targeting their prey, they exploited her weaknesses.”
Brianna and Jenkinson met at Birchwood Community High School and spent time together socially outside of school.
An investigation by File on 4 revealed that Jenkinson transferred to the school as an administrative transfer from nearby Culcheth High School in November 2022 after supplying younger students with marijuana confections.
She later attempts to poison Brianna before killing her.
Warrington Borough Council said an investigation into the incident at Culcheth High School was ongoing.
Brianna met Ratcliffe hours before he was killed.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, who had known each other since they were 11 years old at Culcheth High School, had been planning the murder for weeks, creating a “kill list” of five children before deciding to target Brianna.
Brianna suffered stab wounds to her head, neck and chest when she was attacked with a hunting knife in broad daylight at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington.
The two teenagers, who were both 15 years old at the time, then returned home and continued their lives as if nothing had happened, with Jenkinson later paying tribute to Brianna with a photo of her.
Detectives later found a knife in Ratcliffe’s bedroom with his DNA on the handle and Brianna’s blood on the blade.
The 18-day trial heard how Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were fascinated by violence, torture and murder.
Messages between the two show that they encouraged each other to think about how to actually carry out the murder.
During the trial, the two teenagers accused each other, but prosecutor Deanna Hier KC said that after Jenkinson was convicted, he admitted to a psychiatrist that he had stabbed Brianna.
Mr Heer said: “She virtually stated that at the time of the murder, she had actually inflicted the stab wounds herself.”
“She took the knife from Eddie’s hand and stabbed Brianna multiple times.
“She said Eddie threw Brianna to the floor and stabbed her three or four times, then panicked and said he didn’t want to kill her, so he continued to stab her multiple times.
“I asked her how much, and she said ‘a lot.’ She was happy and excited about what she was doing.”
After Mr. Jenkinson’s arrest, a crumpled handwritten note was found on the floor of Mr. Jenkinson’s bedroom containing what was described as a “murder plot” to kill Brianna.
Notes about serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, and Harold Shipman were also written in the black notebook.
Ms Heer said Ms Jenkinson also created a second “kill list” of staff at the secure youth accommodation where she was being held, with the names of those caring for her. .
Mr Jenkinson’s lawyer, Richard Pratt KC, told the court that Mr Jenkinson had been instructed to say something different to what he had said to the psychiatrist at the sentencing hearing.
Mrs Justice Yip said she got the impression that now that Jenkinson had been found guilty, he wanted to “taint himself in as bad a light as possible, given his admiration for the notorious murderer”.
“For the record, is her current explanation that Eddie did most of the stabbings, but that she certainly enjoyed it?” she said.
To this Mr. Pratt replied, “Yes.”
Ratcliffe’s lawyer, Richard Littler KC, said Ratcliffe’s language was “childish and immature” and was motivated by transphobia after he shared offensive messages about Brianna. He denied that.
“The names on Scarlett’s kill list did not specify gender,” he told the court.
“They were just people she didn’t like.
“Eddie simply agreed with her.”
He said Ms Ratcliffe’s motive was to support Ms Jenkinson “because he wanted to please her”.
“Sadism is the pleasure derived from inflicting pain, and we think that fits perfectly for Scarlett, but not for Eddie,” he said.
“Two very different people are committing the crime, and for very different reasons.”
He added that Ratcliffe was essentially co-opted and that it was Jenkinson who first introduced the idea and drew up the kill list.