Scarlett Jenkinson had a behaviour record littered with incidents before she was transferred to the same school as Brianna Ghey, who she went on to kill in a brutal stabbing
Twisted teen Scarlett Jenkinson was accused of posting naked photos of another schoolgirl on Snapchat just months before she slaughtered Brianna Ghey, an inquest into her death was told.
The inquest into the death of the transgender team has been probing the decision to transfer Jenkinson to Birchwood Community High School where Brianna was a student. Today a coroner ruled that the school “could not have reasonably foreseen” that Jenkinson “would have plotted and murdered Brianna”.
The court heard how Jenkinson had assaulted another pupil, made racist comments in class, came to school drunk and another time arrived smelling of cannabis in several separate incidents at Culcheth High School.
Then in May 2022 the would-be killer was hauled back into the headteacher’s office when another student accused Scarlett of hacking into her Snapchat account and posting naked photographs from her private camera roll onto the social media platform. But Culcheth High School leaders claimed they could not reprimand Scarlett as she “denied any involvement” and the pictures had come from the victim’s own phone and Snapchat account.
Suzy Saffery, deputy safeguarding lead at the Warrington school said: “She believed Scarlett had logged into her Snapchat account and posted photos… The photos had come from this girl’s account… Scarlett denied that she had any involvement in it… It was tricky to manage.”
Eight months later, Jenkinson and her accomplice Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time, would lure Brianna to a park and stab her 28 times. Pastoral bosses at Culcheth High School said Jenkinson’s behaviour record was not one which ‘stood out’ as particularly naughty until an incident where she tried to poison another student with cannabis edibles.
That incident in September 2022, left teachers considering whether to permanently exclude her – but instead they arranged a ‘managed transfer’ of the would-be-killer to the same school as Brianna the following month. Assistant Head, Martin Cushing said Scarlett wasn’t on any behaviour monitoring plans as a result of the previous incidents before this.
He added: “She wasn’t rude, she wasn’t defiant, she wasn’t aggressive. A managed transfer was actually the most appropriate.” The inquest also heard that while teachers established that the student spiked with the cannabis edible “didn’t know” what she was taking, Scarlett’s intention to spike the student had not been clear at the time.
The inquest heard that Culcheth and Birchwood schools now disagree about exactly what information was passed on about Scarlett when she moved schools. In a statement from both parties listing a number of agreed facts, representatives of the schools said: “There is no consistent recollection… as to the specific information discussed.”
The statement added: “Irrespective of the level of the detail of the disclosure… both schools accept the managed transfer was appropriate and neither of the schools or their personnel could possibly have foreseen nor did they foresee that Scarlett Jenkinson posed any threat to Brianna or any other child.”
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were caged for life for Brianna’s murder in December last year. Jenkinson was handed a minimum term of 22 years while 20 years respectively. The inquest also heard that while Ratcliffe opted to sit his GCSE exams while on remand in prison, Jenkinson never sat her exams.
