What Actually Happened To Brianna Ghey?

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All throughout 2023, the UK media closely followed the murder of a young trans girl. There were many reporting mistakes and through this young girls tragic end birthed a movement within the LGBTQ+ community nationally and even internationally. But what actually happened to Brianna Ghey?

Brianna Ghey was a 16-year-old transgender female and a year 11 student at Birchwood Community High School. Her parents described her as "a larger-than-life character who would leave a lasting impression on all that met her". According to her friends, Ghey would often help younger trans girls safely and legally access hormone replacement therapy.

In addition to being a student, Ghey was also a TikToker under the username @gingerpuppyx where she would upload videos of herself miming and dancing to popular songs. Her number of followers variously reported as 11,000, 31,000 and 63,000. One of her final TikToks said that she was "excluded from school". After her death, her TikTok account was deleted. On the afternoon of 11 February 2023, Ghey was found with multiple stab wounds on a path in Culcheth Linear Park by members of the public. Emergency services were called at 3:13 p.m. and she was pronounced dead at 4:02 pm by paramedics at the scene. A Home Office postmortem was ordered to determine the cause of death. On 15 February 2023, prosecutor Leanne Gallagher said the attack on Ghey was "extremely brutal and punishing". A post-mortem examination found that Ghey had been stabbed 28 times, across her head, neck, chest, and back.

On 12 February 2023, two 15-year-old suspects, Eddie Ratcliffe from Leigh and Scarlett Jenkinson from Warrington, were arrested simultaneously at their homes by Cheshire Police. Police described the killing as a "targeted attack". Mike Evans, Cheshire Police's head of crime, initially said "at this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related". Two days later, on 14 February, the police said they were investigating "all lines of inquiry", including whether the attack had been a hate crime.

While in custody, Jenkinson was found to have traits of autism and ADHD; Ratcliffe was diagnosed after arrest as autistic and as having selective mutism, resulting in him not being able to speak to anyone except his mother. Reasonable accommodations were made for both accused during the trial. Because of his selective mutism, he was allowed to communicate with court by typing on computer. Both perpetrators were given the option to participate in proceedings via a video link, rather than in person. The jury were also told that both Jenkinson and Ratcliffe could react or speak differently in the proceedings due to their diagnoses.

Both Jenkinson and Ratcliffe made separate defense cases. Each defendant placed the blame for the actual killing upon the other, arguing that they themselves were only accessories to the act. Defense for Ratcliffe said that Jenkinson had told him to bring his hunting knife to the park, and that she "had a plan to stab Brianna". Ratcliffe further stated that he did not take Jenkinson's alleged plan seriously because she had a history of "always talking about murder and nothing happens". He said that he was urinating behind a tree when Scarlett stabbed Brianna. He denied holding any animosity towards Ghey regarding her trans identity. Ratcliffe's defense accused Jenkinson of manipulating him due to his autism.

Jenkinson's defense held that while she may have lured Ghey to the park where she was stabbed and come up with the plan in question, it was only done so as part of a "fantasy", and that it was Ratcliffe who carried out the stabbing to Jenkinson's "shock". She described herself as not stopping the act despite her surprise, due to being afraid of Ratcliffe, describing him as a "sociopath". Jenkinson's defence also pointed out how an excess amount of Ghey's blood was later found on Ratcliffe's clothing, while none was found on Jenkinson's. Do you think any of these scenarios are accurate or do you think they are both as bad as each other and trying to get lesser sentences by turning on each other?

During trial it was revealed that Brianna considered Scarlett Jenkinson a friend and she had arranged to meet up with her on the day she died. Scarlett and Eddie had known each other since they were 11 when they both started at Culcheth High School. Brianna had not met Eddie previously and was introduced to him through Scarlett that day. Brianna believed the three of them were going to hang out together in the park. But the sickening reality was that Brianna had been lured there under false pretenses. The trial heard how Jenkinson and Ratcliffe had a fascination with violence, torture and murder and had planned the killing for weeks. Messages between them showed they encouraged one another to think about how they would carry out a killing.

But what actually happened on the day she died? Brianna leaves her home to take the bus and meet the two suspects which is confirmed by a text message she sent her mum at 1:41 pm saying “I’m on the bus by myself, I’m well scared.” This was a big deal for her as she suffered with severe anxiety, her mother replied giving her some words of encouragement. At 2:30pm the dynamic had changed between the trio as Brianna had sent a message to another friend calling Scarlett weird. For around 30 minutes before Brianna sent this text Scarlett was messaging herself on a fake snap chat account pretending to be a dealer to keep Brianna with them. The only people who know what happened next are Scarlett and Eddie but less than 45 minutes later, Brianna was found with 28 stab wounds by some dog walkers.

Scarlett attempted to provide an alibi for herself and Eddie by using Brianna’s phone to text herself at 3:03pm saying “Girl where are you?” and then replying, “why would you ditch us for some guy from Manchester?” The police have confirmed that Brianna had already been stabbed by this point. Do you think she planned this or is this something she did spontaneously? On February 15th, 2023, Brianna’s phone was found in a drain covered in blood in an area where Scarlett and Eddie were seen shortly after being with Brianna.

In the investigation and aftermath, the media speculated that Brianna was killed due to being transgender and that this was a hate crime. However, this was found to be false during the trial as a “kill list” containing 5 names were found and Brianna was the only transgender person on that list. Unfortunately, she was most likely killed due to how accessible she was to Scarlett.

Texts messages between the two defendants that were revealed in trial point towards some hateful feelings towards Brianna due to her trans identity. With one of them stating “I want to see how big of a d*ck it has.” However, other messages came to light which highlighted that the two defendants had plans to kill multiple people and that the victim didn’t really matter. The trial lasted three weeks, concluding on 20 December 2023, with both defendants being found guilty of the murder of Ghey. Jury deliberations lasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes.

On 2 February 2024, the sentencing hearing was held at Manchester Crown Court, before which the two teenagers were named as Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe: the judge determined that there was "a strong public interest in the full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case". The sentencing hearing included victim impact statements from Ghey's parents and stepfather. The court also heard updated assessments by psychiatrists of the perpetrators: Jenkinson has anti-social personality disorder rather than autism, and that Ratcliffe has a mild form of "autistic spectrum personality disorder".

Scarlett Jenkinson was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 22 years, and Eddie Ratcliffe was also given a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years both with a reduction of 352 days due to what they have already spent on remand. Jenkinson will become eligible to be considered for parole on 25 January 2044, while Ratcliffe will become eligible to be considered for parole on 25 January 2042.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Justice Yip described the murder as "sadistic in nature" and, referring to Ratcliffe, "where a secondary motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity". Do you believe this judge’s ruling to be fair? Was Eddie involved because of some form of transphobia and was there no motive but to just take part in a murder for Scarlett? Since they have both been imprisoned, Scarlett has already been found with another “kill list” containing prison staff names whereas Eddie has maintained his innocence claiming he was urinating behind a tree when Scarlett first stabbed Brianna. It has also come to light that only 6 months before Brianna’s murder, Scarlett was forced to move schools because she took drugs into school and spiked a 13-year-old female student with edibles. Birchwood school stated they were aware that she had brought the drugs into her previous school but were not made aware that she had spiked another student. Personally, I feel like this is a big indicator with who was the ringleader. I don’t see their motives stemming from transphobia but from a morbid interest in taking someone’s life.

A TikTok memorial account and a GoFundMe page were set up by Ghey's friends to support her family. It raised £70,000 in three days and amassed over 36,000 followers on TikTok. After Ghey's fundraising page amassed £100,000, her family thanked people for their "overwhelming generosity" and stated the money was spent on her funeral, refurbishing her room, and the purchase of cremation jewellery for the family's remembrance. Some of the donations were designated for a UK children's mental health charity. Candlelight vigils were held across the United Kingdom, and in Dublin, Ireland in the week after Ghey's death. The attendance for many of these vigils numbered in the hundreds to thousands. A Cheshire Police Investigating Officer said Ghey's family were overwhelmed by "the messages of support, positivity and the compassion across the country and beyond".

Twitter campaigns called for the UK government to issue a Gender Recognition Certificate to Ghey "so that she can have the dignity in death that everyone else in this world takes for granted". A petition circulated, reaching more than 13,000 signatures, for Ghey's death certificate to reflect her gender as female. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides a route to achieving full legal recognition of a transgender person's gender. It is not available to minors.

The immediate outcry, both domestically and internationally, was over the assumption that Ghey's death certificate would likely misgender her. The petition was rejected by the British government, who stated in response that the current policy "strikes the right balance" and that they had no plans to change it. In April, the Trans Safety Network reported that, contrary to popular belief, "in an ongoing case concerning a trans person's death, the coroner has agreed that a Gender Recognition Certificate is unnecessary in order to record the correct name and gender of a trans person on their death certificate."

Some UK media outlets were criticized for their reporting of Ghey's death. The Trans Safety Network said that some UK media outlets were "publicly disrespecting" Ghey in their coverage of her death. Initial reporting by both BBC News and Sky News did not state that Ghey was transgender. The Times faced strong criticism after amending their original story by removing the word "girl" and including Ghey's deadname. The Times later amended their story again to remove the deadname and re-add the word "girl.”

Since the death of Brianna, there has been some public outcry with the way that Parliament has handled the situation after the fact. The prime minister Rishi Sunak has come under fire for making a comment about "defining a woman" in front of Brianna Ghey's mother, Esther. He refused to apologize. MP Jess Phillips also read out Brianna Ghey's name when remembering the women who have been involved in femicide (women killed by men) the last year. There was an outrage from the public as people believed Brianna's name should not have been included as her case does not fit the criteria and many believe she only read out her name due to the attention it was getting in the media at the time.

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