LONDON: 16-year-old convicted killers of a transgender teenager in northwest England nearly a year ago were named in court on Friday after the judge in the case lifted a ban on reporting their identities.
Justice Amanda Yip lifted the restrictions on the naming of Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe during a sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe both face a mandatory life sentence for the brutal murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey. The judge was to decide later Friday how long they will have to spend in prison before being eligible for parole.
They were previously known as Girl X and Boy Y, having been 15 at the time of the killing.
Brianna was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in broad daylight after being lured to a park in the town of Warrington on Feb. 11, 2023.
The defendants denied killing Brianna and blamed each other for the fatal stabbing. It is not known which one or if both wielded the knife. Neither had been in trouble with police before.
The two were found guilty by a jury last month following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
The trial heard that the defendants were intelligent and had a fascination with violence, torture and serial killers. They had planned the attack for weeks, detailed in a handwritten plan and phone messages found by detectives. They also had discussed killing others, which prompted police early in the investigation to rule out transphobia as a motive behind Brianna’s murder.
Police believe Brianna was killed because she was vulnerable and accessible, with her death not a hate crime but done for “enjoyment” and a “thirst for killing.”