Two 16-year-olds have been found guilty of murdering Brianna Ghey, a “unique, and truly unforgettable” transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times in a Warrington park this year.
The teenagers, known as Girl X and Boy Y to protect their identities, were found guilty unanimously by a jury at Manchester crown court on Wednesday after it deliberated for four hours and 40 minutes. The judge, Mrs Justice Yip, said she would sentence the pair next month.
The teenagers were told that the judge would have to impose a life sentence but said she needed to adjourn for further reports to decide on the minimum tariff they must serve. The mothers of both teenagers wept in court after the verdicts were announced.
The girl, who was fascinated by serial killers and boasted of watching torture videos on the dark web, said she was “obsessed” with Brianna. She and Brianna had been friends for a few months before she began plotting to kill her, along with Y.
Vigils were held for Brianna, 16, after her murder, prompting particular sorrow and fear among trans people, though Cheshire police said from the start they did not believe she was killed for being trans.
Y had never met Brianna until the day of the murder, which took place in the middle of the afternoon in Culcheth Linear Park on 11 February. The teenagers were disturbed by a couple walking their dog, and ran away, before being captured on CCTV making their way home calmly.
The defendants exchanged thousands of WhatsApp messages in the run-up to the murder, discussing various children they wanted to kill. Plans to murder another boy were abandoned when they failed to lure him to Culcheth Linear Park, and so they switched their focus to Brianna, who the court heard did not go out much and had anxiety.
The boy referred to Brianna as “prey” and “it” in his messages, saying she would be “easier” to kill “and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl”.
Though X and Y had been friends since they were 11, they turned on each other after their arrests. The girl initially made up a story about Brianna “going off with some lad from Manchester”, before changing her defence to claim that the boy was responsible for killing her.
Y blamed the murder on X, saying he was urinating against a tree in the park when he turned around to see X stabbing Brianna.
The jury was told they did not have to decide which one of the teenagers stabbed Brianna to find them guilty of the joint enterprise murder.
Y told police the girl was “not a normal person” and that she claimed to be a satanist in year 8. He said she told him she had killed twice before, but that he was not sure whether to believe her because the murders had not been on the news. Police could find no evidence of other killings.
After detectives confronted Boy Y with the forensic evidence against him – including Brianna’s blood on a hunting knife found in his bedroom, as well as on his trainers and clothes – he stopped talking and has been mute since being taken into secure custody, talking only to his mother.
Highly unusually, the boy was allowed to give evidence via text. Special arrangements were made for the barristers’ questions to be typed for him, and he typed his replies, which were read to the jury.
He and Girl X were provided with intermediaries, who sat with them in the dock to make sure they understood the court process, along with security staff. Neither child spoke to each other, and avoided making eye contact when they were together.
Their parents were in court most days, with Brianna’s family watching upstairs from the public gallery.
Earlier this year, Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, told the Guardian that while her daughter had anxiety and mental health problems, she was “very outgoing and very confident” and dreamed of becoming “TikTok famous”.
The court heard she did not go out alone often, and texted her mother on the way to meet her killers, saying she was “scared” because the bus was full.
But she had a large following online, where her dance routines and skits drew friends from around the world.
“I think one of her main goals in life was to be famous, and she wanted to be TikTok famous. She just absolutely loved the attention. I remember her coming downstairs when one of her TikToks, in inverted commas, ‘blew up’. And she was absolutely over the moon with all of the attention that she would receive,” Esther Ghey said.
At Brianna’s funeral, her school, Birchwood community high school in Warrington, described her as a “true one-off, unique, and truly unforgettable” and said it was a privilege to know her.
Though Girl X told the jury that Brianna was bullied at school for being trans, Brianna’s mother said that was not true. Brianna came out as trans aged 14 and had been living and dressing as a girl until her murder. Her mother said she supported the transition: “It didn’t bother me. It was just something that Brianna wanted to do and I was happy. As long as she was happy then that’s all that mattered.”
After the verdicts the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This has been one of the most distressing cases the Crown Prosecution Service has had to deal 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.
“Girl X and Boy Y appear to have been a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started out as dark fantasies about murder into a reality.
“This has been a difficult prosecution, not least because two very young people were on trial for the most serious offence known to criminal law. It has involved using a number of measures to ensure that the defendants could participate fully in the trial and enable them to give their evidence.
“The Crown Prosecution Service would like to thank the family of Brianna Ghey for the courage and dignity that they have shown throughout these proceedings. We hope today’s verdict brings some solace, and our thoughts and sympathies remain with them at this difficult time.”
