Brianna Ghey’s father says ‘evil monsters’ who killed daughter should be forgotten

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, brutally murdered 16-year-old Brianna in a frenzied killing on February 11 last year

Brianna Ghey’s father said the “evil monsters” who killed his teenage daughter should be forgotten.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, brutally murdered 16-year-old Brianna in a frenzied killing on February 11 last year. The transgender teenager was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife after being lured to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, by the callous youths she believed to be her friends.

Peter Spooner, disagreed with the judge’s decision to identify the teenage killers ahead of their sentencing on Friday as he fears their names will be “tied to Brianna’s all the time”.

Brianna Ghey’s father Peter Spooner has been speaking out as her killers are sentenced (Sky News)

“At first, I thought they should be named,” Brianna’s father told Sky News. “Why should they be protected? People should know who they are. Now, I think their names are always going to be tied to Brianna’s all the time,” he said. “I think they should just be forgotten about, locked up and not be spoken about again. They’re nothing.

“If I’m honest I hate them. They’re just evil for what they’ve done and I don’t think they’ll ever change. They’ll always be monsters. And that’s what they are to me.”

Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, previously identified only as girl X and boy Y, had denied murder and each attempted to blame the other for her killing.

Both aged 15 at the time, they were discussing Brianna’s murder for weeks, detailed in Jenkinson’s handwritten murder plan and phone messages found by detectives.

Brianna was brutally killed in a park in Culcheth, Cheshire

Victim impact statements from Brianna’s family were read out at the sentencing hearing in Manchester Crown Court on Friday.

Brianna’s stepfather Wesley Powell said the pair had taken advantage of her vulnerabilities and need for a close friend, acting as “two predators stalking their prey”.

“Brianna had a large online following but in reality she was lonely, vulnerable and in need of a close friend,” he said. “Both Eddie and Scarlett knew this and preyed upon her vulnerabilities, acting as two predators stalking their prey.”

In her statement, Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey said she had been pleased when Brianna told her she had gone to meet a friend on the day she died.

“I thought that she would have a wonderful time, hanging around with her friend and getting some fresh air,” she said. “When all that time she was being lured to her death.

“All I can think about is that she would have been scared and I wasn’t there for her. She needed me to protect her, Brianna wasn’t a fighter and she must have been so terrified.”

Brianna’s mother Esther Ghey said the killers should never be released (Getty Images)

She added that she believed Jenkinson and Ratcliffe continued to be a danger to society and should never be released from prison.

“I don’t believe that someone who is so disturbed and obsessed with murder and torture would ever be able to be rehabilitated,” she said.

“I have moments where I feel sorry for them, because they have also ruined their own lives, but I have to remember that they felt no empathy for Brianna when they left her bleeding to death after their premeditated and vicious attack, which was carried out not because Brianna had done anything wrong, but just because one hated trans people and the other thought it would be fun.”

Brianna’s mother was ‘pleased’ when her daughter texted her to say she was going to meet friends on February 11 (PA)

At age 14, Jenkinson, who described herself as a Satanist, had downloaded a TOR internet browser app to watch videos of the torture and murder of real people in “red rooms” on the “dark web”. She became fascinated with serial killers, making notes on their methods, and admitted enjoying “dark fantasies” about killing and torture.

The court heard Jenkinson told her accomplice she wanted to stab Brianna “jus coz its fun lol… I want to see the pure horror on her face and hear her scream”. She watched her favourite film, Sweeney Todd, for the “9,000th time” and discussed which knife her co-defendant would use, the night before Brianna’s murder.

The pair’s dark fantasies were about to become reality, as Jenkinson subsequently lured Brianna to the park on a Saturday afternoon.

At around 3pm, Brianna, who had been seen sat on a bench, was suddenly attacked, possibly initially from behind, with a hunting knife with a 13cm blade, brought to the park by Ratcliffe. It is not known which defendant or if both wielded the knife. Brianna was “stabbed and stabbed and stabbed” in a “frenzied and ferocious” attack.

The gruesome murder of a transgender teenager in a public park prompted candlelit vigils worldwide protesting against perceived transphobia.

Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court on Friday that her murder was “motivated in part by Brianna’s transgender identity”.

They are due to be sentenced later on Friday.