Brianna Ghey murder trial: accused posted tribute to ‘amazing friend’, court hears
A teenage girl accused of murdering Brianna Ghey posted an online tribute to her after the killing, saying she was “such an amazing friend”, a court has heard.
The girl, known as X to protect her identity, had met Brianna in November 2022, three months before allegedly murdering her in a park near Warrington on 11 February 2023, along with a boy, known as Y.
A jury at Manchester crown court heard how X and Y spent weeks discussing murdering Brianna and four other children – boys either one of them did not like. They were both 15 at the time, and have now turned 16, the court heard.
After being arrested, Y told police he “just went along with the conversation” and that X was prone to exaggeration: “He said her friends don’t believe 90% of what she says,” the prosecuting barrister, Deanna Heer KC, told the jury.
Police found a handwritten note in X’s bedroom, headed: “Saturday 11 February 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey.” The note detailed where she and Y would meet, how they would collect Brianna, who was trans, from the bus stop near Culcheth library and take her to Culcheth Linear Park, where she was found dead that day.
It ended: “I say code word to Y. He stabs her in the back as I stab her in the stomach. Y drags the body into the area. We both cover up the area with logs etc.”
Another alleged killing plan was found in X’s bedroom, which read: “Give them alcohol with sleeping pills, slit throat, dismember body, place pieces in bin bags, bury bags 7 feet underground” and then “Get her to go to linear park, go to the hidden spot near the bridge I usually go to, someone jumps out and restrains her (plan B). I kill her.”
A roll of bin bags was found in her room, Heer told the jury.
Two days before the murder, X invited Brianna to meet in Culcheth, saying she was “gonna get absolutely shitfaced and high af [as fuck]”.
X then asked the boy “what knife you bringing?”, the court heard. The girl checked: “That will definitely 100% kill her?” The boy replied: “Yes, it cuts my skin easily.” The girl told him she was “excited af [as fuck] for tomorrow”.
On the day of the murder, X texted Brianna to tell her to buy a single child ticket to Culcheth library, the court heard. The bus driver later told police that Brianna was quietly spoken and seemed “very timid”, Heer told the jury. After boarding, Brianna sent a message to her mother, Esther Ghey, saying: “I’m on the bus by myself, I’m scared.”
Esther told police that Brianna was “an anxious child, who did not normally go out on her own”.
CCTV showed the defendants meeting Brianna at the appointed time and day. Brianna was dressed in a short grey tartan skirt, long white socks and a fluffy white hooded jacket: a distinctive outfit that meant many members of the public later remembered seeing her, Heer told the court.
The three teenagers then walked together to Culcheth Linear Park, which is built on a disused railway line.
Shortly afterwards, one or both of the defendants stabbed Brianna to death. Her body was discovered face down in the mud by two dog walkers, who called 999.
She had been stabbed 28 times with a 13cm hunting knife that Y had bought six weeks earlier, the court heard. Both defendants’ DNA was found on drinks bottles at the scene and Brianna’s blood was present on trainers and clothes found in Y’s bedroom.
CCTV showed the boy and girl making their way home. They then sent a series of messages “feigning ignorance” about the murder as word spread that Brianna had been killed, Heer told the jury.
X posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat, saying: “Brianna was one of the best people I have ever met and such an amazing friend its so fucking sickening what got done to her.”
X had an interest in serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman, the jury heard. She told the boy, Y, that she had killed two people before, but there is no evidence to suggest she had committed other murders, the court heard.
When she was arrested by police, the girl first claimed to have heard of Brianna’s death on the news. Confronted with the CCTV evidence, as well as witnesses who saw her with Brianna shortly before the murder, the girl “lied” and claimed Brianna had “gone off with a lad from Manchester”, the court heard.
Boy Y told police that he and X had met Brianna in Culcheth and that they walked “to a forest”, Heer told the jury. He said X stabbed Brianna while he was looking the other way, urinating up against a tree. He said he got blood on his hands after touching Brianna to see if she was alive.
The jury was told that both defendants had accepted that they were present in Linear Park with Brianna when she was killed, but blame each other for the murder.
“Plainly they cannot both be telling the truth,” Heer told the jury, “But the prosecution does not have to prove who it was that wielded the knife – whether it was one of them or both of them. Provided you are sure that they intentionally participated in the killing in some way they are both guilty.
“A person can be guilty of murder even though they do not administer the fatal blow, if they assist or encourage another person to commit the offence and if they do so intending that the offence be committed.”
The trial continues.