two teenagers sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a transgender girl

Brianna Ghey was stabbed around 30 times in the head, neck, chest and back with a hunting knife.

It is a case which created great emotion last year in the United Kingdom. Two 16-year-old teenagers were sentenced on Friday February 2 to life in prison for the February 2023 stabbing murder of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender teenager. They stabbed her around 30 times in the head, neck, chest and back with a hunting knife, after she was lured to a park near Warrington, Liverpool, where she was staying.

Reflecting the shock caused, the Manchester court took the exceptional decision to reveal the names of these two minors, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, described during the inquest as being fascinated by “violence, torture and death”with a real “thirst to kill”. Judge Amanda Yip called the murder a “brutal, and planned, sadistic by nature”by pronouncing this sentence, accompanied by security sentences of 22 years and 20 years respectively, a rare severity for minors.

Dozens of text messages before taking action

During a grueling four-week trial, the two teenagers blamed each other for the murder. They were both ultimately found guilty in December. Days later, Scarlett Jenkinson admitted for the first time to a psychiatrist that she stabbed Brianna, prosecutor Deanna Heer told the court Friday.

The girl confessed to having “ripped the knife from Eddie’s hands”who did not know Brianna before the murder, and carried out the majority of the blows, she reported, saying she “satisfied and excited by what she was doing”. Before taking the act, the two young people had planned this murder for weeks by sending dozens of text messages. If some of Eddie Ratcliffe’s messages include transphobic comments against Brianna, the motivation for Scarlett Jenkinson’s action was “the desire to kill”underlined the judge.