Brianna Ghey killers’ horrifying moves after murder – sick brag and vile cover-up texts

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. Hours after brutally stabbing Brianna Ghey 28 times, twisted teenagers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe attempted to cover up their crimes with a web of lies

After stabbing Brianna Ghey 28 times in broad daylight, murderers Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe carried on with their day-to-day lives as if nothing had happened. However, within 24 hours the pair were identified by investigating officers and they were given life sentences for the “brutal, planned and sadistic” murder.

As part of a new ITV documentary which aired tonight, Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther has bravely opened up about her daughter’s tragic death. During the one and a half hour documentary Brianna: A Mother’s Story, friends and family of Brianna, as well as detectives who worked on the case, shared their side of the story to piece together the horrific events of February 11 2023.

A three-day inquest into the death of 16-year-old Brianna found she was unlawfully killed but their schools or local authority could not have foreseen her murder, a coroner ruled. Brianna was murdered in the coldest fashion in Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire, on February 11, 2023. In December, Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were found guilty of plotting to torture and kill Brianna after a lengthy trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Brianna Ghey’s teen killers turn on each other in chilling never-before-seen interviews

Safeguarding for all three teenagers was examined during the inquest and how Brianna was brought into contact with Jenkinson. But the hearing was told despite Jenkinson’s misbehaviour in school, no one could have foreseen she was planning and would go on to murder.

Concluding the inquest, Jacqueline Devonish, senior coroner for Cheshire, said: “There was no reason for anyone to suspect the friendship was anything other than genuine. I found Birchwood High School offered Brianna a high standard of support within a caring environment.”

Ms Devonish said there were no visible signs that Brianna was at risk from Jenkinson. “I found that the schools could not have reasonably foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe would have plotted and murdered Brianna. It could not have, on the evidence available at the time, reasonably have been foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson was mentally unstable so that she would kill.”

The twisted teenagers had been discussing their plans to stage a killing frenzy for weeks and stabbed Brianna to death 28 times in the head, neck and body. Despite their attempts to cover up their crime, police investigators identified the pair within 24 hours and found the knife, blood-soaked clothes and handwritten ‘murder plan’.

At 3.13pm on the day of the murder, dog walker Kathryn Vize saw Jenkinson and Ratcliffe in the park and discovered Brianna gravely injured. She called 999 while the killers ran away. At 4.02pm, Brianna was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were spotted on a dashcam walking together down a lane at 3.15pm, carrying on the day as normal, as if nothing had happened. CCTV footage showed them walking towards Jenkinson’s home. She arrived at around 3.20pm and deleted a Snapchat conversation she’d had with Brianna at 3.44pm.

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe was caught ‘apparently wiping his hands, which appeared to be red in colour’ on CCTV before getting the bus back to his home, arriving at about 4pm. His mother, Alice Hemmings, told the inquest that she called her son to say she was in the area to pick him up, but he was “happy to get the bus home”.

Ms Hemmings said he ‘whistled’ instead of saying hello. She said: “I could hear people in the background but felt uneasy. I just felt like I needed all my family at home with me, I didn’t feel relaxed that day and there was too much to do.

“I texted to see if he was home when I finished work and he said yes. He came down differently, pleased to see me and allowed me to hug him. He wanted to stay downstairs and be in the family environment.”

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court last year that Ratcliffe messaged Jenkison at 4.28pm asking: “So how’s your cat?” to which she replied: “Good loll. How’s yours.” He said: “It keeps trying to purr.” They then set about attempting to craft a subtle cover-up story.

Jenkins messaged Ratcliffe to say a “woman got stabbed” in the park and he replied “Holy crap”. On the night of the murder, Jenkins asked Ratcliffe at 11.11pm: “Do you have anxiety about getting caught?” He replied: “Probably.” She said: “You’re not going to get caught don’t worry. Police are sh*** here.”

The following day, Jenkinson, who had befriended Brianna, messaged her phone number to say: “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.”

Around 5pm that day, Jenkinson’s mum phoned police to tell them her daughter had been “in the park when Brianna looked at her phone and said she needed to meet some boy, a 17-year-old from Manchester who was going to meet her in his car.”

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe looked up penalties online for supplying or withholding information on the Crown Prosecution Service website. Jenkinson then posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat, describing her as an “amazing friend”, and that what happened to her was “so f***ing sickening”.

Jenkinson messaged Ratcliffe to warn him that her mum had spoken to the police, and told him to: “Make sure story adds up say to police everything we met Brianna at half 1 walked to linear and sat and chilled on the bench, then Brianna looked at her phone and said she was gonna meet some lad and walked off.”

The pair, both then 15, were arrested simultaneously at their homes, and officers found the knife and blood-soaked clothes in Ratcliffe’s bedroom and the ‘murder plan’ in Jenkinson’s, which had a love heart and smiley face doodled on the top corner of the page.

Upon arrest, Jenkinson asked officers, “How come I am a suspect?”. While Ratcliffe said to police, “I can explain”, after they turned up at his doorstep. When cross-examined, the two pals blamed each other for Brianna’s death and both said their backs were turned when the other defendant began stabbing Brianna in a “frenzied” fashion.

Under arrest, Jenkinson laughed 17 times during her account to police detectives. “I’m good at hiding stuff and playing the victim,” she had told Ratcliffe.

After the four-week trial in December, Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans explained it became clear early on that the pair believed they could cover their tracks. “These are really high-functioning, intelligent children,” he said. “I know people sat at home reading this will have this sort of image that they’ve built themselves.

“But actually they’re both really clever kids and very bright, very articulate. I think probably their downfall has been their confidence or arrogance around the fact that they thought that they could take another human life and then thought there would be no comeuppance for them and they’d never get caught.”

Brianna: A Mother’s Story, is available to watch on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player on 27 March at 9pm