LONDON.- The names of two minors who murdered a transgender teenager in northwest England almost a year ago were revealed in court on Friday, when the judge in the case lifted a ban on revealing their identities.
Judge Amanda Yip, sitting at Manchester Crown Court, allowed Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, to be named as the killers of Brianna Ghey, the same age, a crime that horrified the nation.
Brianna was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in the head, neck, chest and back in broad daylight in a park where she was lured in the town of Warrington on February 11, 2023.
Under English law, young offenders cannot be publicly identified before turning 18. Until now, Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were known as Girl X and Boy Y, both 15 years old at the time of committing the crime.
Once found guilty, Yip said, there was a “strong public interest in full and unrestricted reporting of what is clearly an exceptional case.” Their lawyers argued that their identification will have consequences that will affect their well-being.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe face a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The judge heard statements from Brianna’s family and expert opinions before deciding how much time they will have to spend in prison before being eligible for parole.
Brianna’s father, Peter Spooner, told the court that being a father to a transgender girl — Brianna’s original name was Brett — had been “a difficult thing to accept” but that he was ultimately “proud to have another beautiful daughter.”
“We were forming a new relationship and these two killers have stripped us of that,” he said. “Justice may have been served with the guilty verdicts, but no amount of prison time will be enough for these monsters.”
The defendants denied killing Brianna and blamed each other for the fatal stabbing. It is not known if one or both used the dagger. None had had previous problems with the law. A jury found them guilty after a four-week trial at Manchester Magistrates Court.
Source: With information from AP
