Two teenagers have been founded guilty of the murder of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey. Brianna, 16, was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11.
Two teenagers, identified only as girl X and boy Y, both now aged 16 but 15 at the time, denied murder and each blamed the other for the killing.
Both say their backs were turned when the other one suddenly began stabbing Brianna, jurors at Manchester Crown Court have been told.
The defendants had a fascination with violence, torture and murder and had planned the killing for weeks, it is alleged, and both were “in it together from first to last”, Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, told the jury in her closing speech.
On Wednesday, the 18th day of the trial, the jury was sent out to consider its verdicts shortly after 10am.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Yip has told the pair that they will both receive life sentences.
Neither defendant, sat next to a social worker each and surrounded by six security staff filling the dock, made any visible reaction as the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdicts.
Boy Y’s mother’s head slumped down on to the shoulder of a friend sat beside her and began crying.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Yip told jurors she will not pass sentence this week.
She told the jury: “All 12 of you have provided outstanding service. No doubt when you came to court you did not anticipate such an emotionally difficult one as this one.”
Mrs Justice Yip excused jurors from serving on a jury again for life before adjourning the court hearing briefly.
Girl X was wearing a pinafore style dress and she spoke to her social worker, glanced at her parents and left the courtroom.
Boy Y, who avoids all eye contact, did not look over at his mother as he was led from the dock. He was carrying Sudoku puzzles book.
The court is expected to reconvene to discuss a sentencing date for the defendants.
Deputy chief crown prosecutor Ursula Doyle, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “This has been one of the most distressing cases I 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.”
She added: “Girl X and Boy Y appear to have been a deadly influence on each other and turned their dark fantasies about murder into a reality.”
The mother of Brianna said her daughter was “fearless”.
Esther Ghey told the BBC: “She was fearless to be whoever she wanted to be.
“She wanted to identify as a female and she wanted to wear girl’s school uniform and yeah she just did it. It wasn’t a hurdle at all for her.”
Headteacher of murdered Brianna Ghey Emma Mills said the teenager “didn’t live her life as a victim”.
Emma Mills told the BBC: “There was never any evidence of Brianna being bullied within school or out of school.
“Brianna was very much able to give as good as she got in that way.”
She added: “She was someone that was loud and proud and confident in who she was.”
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