Brianna Ghey: Teenagers guilty of ‘disturbing’ murder after planning ‘frenzied and ferocious’ knife attack

Two teenagers have been found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in a “frenzied and ferocious” knife attack.

The pair, known only as girl X and boy Y, were just 15 when Brianna was lured to Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington, and stabbed 28 times in her head, neck and back with a hunting knife on 11 February.

Speaking after the verdicts, the victim’s mother Esther Ghey said “our house feels empty” without the laughter of her “larger than life” daughter who was “funny, witty and fearless”.

“To know how scared my usually fearless child must have been when she was alone in that park with someone that she called her friend will haunt me forever,” she said in an emotional statement.

Manchester Crown Court heard her killers were obsessed with violence, torture and death and had compiled a “kill list” including Brianna, who was transgender, and four other children.

Jurors were shown thousands of texts and WhatsApp messages exchanged between girl X and boy Y, who are now aged 16, in which they discussed their plans.

Both denied murder, claiming the chats were just “dark fantasies”, and blamed each other for carrying out the stabbing.

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But prosecutors said that while boy Y wielded the knife, girl X was equally responsible because she actively planned and encouraged the killing.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court found them both guilty of murder today after four hours and 40 minutes of deliberations.

The judge Mrs Justice Yip thanked jurors for their service on an “extremely difficult and, at times, distressing case” and adjourned sentencing for reports.

She told the two convicted killers: “I will have to impose a life sentence. What I have to decide is the minimum amount of time you will be required to serve before you might be considered for release.”

Neither of the teenagers visibly reacted as the verdicts were delivered but boy Y’s mother sobbed while being hugged by a friend as her son was led from the dock.

Girl X, wearing a pinafore style dress, spoke to her social worker and glanced at her parents leaving the courtroom.

Brianna’s mother said she had felt sorry for them at times before the trial because they had “ruined their own lives as well as ours”.

But she said that knowing “the true nature” of what they had done and that they had shown no remorse, “I have lost all sympathy I may have previously had for them and am glad they will spend many years in prison and away from society”.

She added: “Please have some empathy and compassion for the families of the young people convicted of this horrific crime.

“They too have lost a child and they must live the rest of their lives knowing what their child has done.”

Brianna’s father Peter Spooner said he was “so proud” of his daughter whose life was “brutally taken”.

“It’s difficult to comprehend how some people can do these vile things in the world and don’t understand how cruel and heartbreaking their actions can be,” he said in an emotional statement outside court.

“My heart bleeds every day for Brianna and this will never go away.”

He added: “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.”

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deputy chief Crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle said: “This has been one of the most disturbing cases we 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.”

The teenagers were arrested within 24 hours of the murder and officers found the knife and blood-soaked clothes in boy Y’s bedroom.

A crumpled handwritten note described as a “murder plan” was found in girl X’s bedroom.

Cheshire Police Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans said both teenagers “thought they’d never get caught” but their downfall was their own “arrogance”.

“I think what they did on that day and leading up to that day was evil, it was cruel and it was vicious,” he said.

“It was absolutely heinous what they’ve done. It was the most brutal, cold-blooded, cruel attack on someone, who was a vulnerable and anxious child.”