Kills lists, Sweeney Todd and the dark web: how torture-obsessed teens plotted Brianna Ghey’s murder

Girl who called herself a Satanist began to fantasise about killing people from as young as age 14, Tara Cobham writes

A teenage girl with a fascination for serial killers watched her favourite film Sweeney Todd as she and a teenage boy put the finishing touches to a meticulous plan for a brutal murder.

The following day, the girl lured transgender teenager Brianna Ghey to a park in Culcheth, near Warrington, having already tried and failed to kill the 16-year-old with an overdose of ibuprofen. In a frenzied attack, the young killers stabbed Brianna 28 times with a hunting knife, the first victim from their “kill list” of at least five child targets.

Now convicted of Brianna’s murder following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, the pair are facing mandatory jail terms for life.

Brianna Ghey, 16, was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife on 11 February (PA)

Speaking after the guilty verdicts, Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans, head of crime at Cheshire Police, described both as having a “thirst for killing” and relishing in the “enjoyment” of Brianna’s murder. He also branded the killers “arrogant” believing they would not be caught as girl X claimed the local police were “shite”.

The trial heard girl X and boy Y – who cannot be named for legal reasons – plunged themselves into the darkest depths of the internet in the months leading up to an intended murder spree.

Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, argued the digital evidence recovered from the pair’s phones showed they were preoccupied with torture, murder and death.

On girl X’s bedroom floor, a crumpled, handwritten plan to kill Brianna was found by police, the jury was told (PA)

X, who described herself as a Satanist, told the jury she began to fantasise about killing people from as young as age 14, around the time she began to take an interest in “dark materials”, such as films of murder, torture and serial killers found on the dark web via an app she had downloaded.

As early as October, X and Y had discussed the killing of another child, boy M, in messages shown to jurors, with X saying: “If we kill boy M, can I keep some things, a couple of teeth and an eye.”

The girl said she had a knife like the one used by the murderous barber Sweeney Todd, a character she appeared to idolise after having seen the film of the same name “9,000 times”.

The murder weapon used to stab Brianna Ghey to death (Cheshire Police)

The court heard that Y sent an image of the weapon used to murder Brianna on New Year’s Day. The £13.50 wooden-handled hunting knife was found in his bedroom with Brianna’s blood on it and his DNA on the handle. His internet browsing history from the end of last year also showed searches on various poisons, including VX nerve agents, sarin and tabun.

The previous month, X told Y over WhatsApp that she was “obsessed” with Brianna, and police would find a crumpled handwritten plan to kill her on X’s bedroom floor.

Searching X’s home after her arrest, officers found the note headed “Saturday, 11th February, 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey,” with the word “plan” written underneath and a smiley face and a heart shape drawn on the top right-hand corner.

Esther Ghey, mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, arriving at Manchester Crown Court ahead of the trial (Reuters)

The note read: “Meet [boy Y] at wooden posts 1pm. Walk down to library, bus stop. Wait until Brianna gets off bus, then the 3 of us walk to Linear Park. Go to the pipe/tunnel area. I say code word to [boy Y]. He stabs her in the back as I stab her in stomach. [Boy Y] drags the body into the area. We both cover up the area with logs etc.”

The jury heard girl X had saved boy Y’s phone number in her phone under the name “Tesco John Wick” and that John Wick was a character from a film about a violent hitman played by Keanu Reeves.

Brianna’s killing sparked an outpouring of grief (Cheshire Police)

Junior prosecution counsel Cheryl Mottram also told jurors a list of types of serial killers was written down in X’s black Pukka notebook, including mass murderers, psychopathic sexual sadists and copycat killers, and notes about “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy, a US serial killer. Among the pages were other notes made on Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman.

After being blocked on a fake Instagram account by one of their targets, boy E, the girl and boy moved their attention to Brianna. Jurors were told X messaged Y, “I want to see pure horror on her face and hear her scream in pain,” to which the boy replied: “Really? All I wanted to see is what size d**k it had.”

After trying and failing to murder Brianna with the ibuprofen gel tablets in January, the pair then decided to stab the 16-year-old to death in Linear Park on 28 January, heard the court. Brianna did not show up to meet them then – but she did two weeks later.

Doorbell footage shows Brianna Ghey leaving home hours before she was stabbed to death (CPS)

The jury heard the anxious 16-year-old, who did not tend to go out on her own, was travelling on the bus to meet girl X when she messaged her mother for the last time, telling her, “I’m on the bus by myself, I’m scared.”

Brianna, X and Y arrived at the park together – but, at 3.06pm, Brianna messaged X: “Girl where are you?” Seven minutes later, a distressed 999 call, later played to jurors, was made by dog walker Kathryn Vize, reporting that somebody had been attacked and she had seen the attackers run away.

In the aftermath of Brianna’s murder, X and Y “feigned ignorance”, said Ms Heer, creating matching “false defences” – before the evidence stacked up against them and each ended up blaming the other.

Peter Spooner, father of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, arriving at Manchester Crown Court ahead of the trial (Reuters)

The next day, the girl messaged Brianna saying: “Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park it’s on news everywhere. And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf. That is so f***** up.”

Meanwhile, the boy was online using the Crown Prosecution Service website, looking up penalties for supplying or withholding information.

X then posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat, describing her as an “amazing friend” and that what had happened was “so f****** sickening”.