On Saturday the 11th February 2023, Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl from Warrington, Cheshire, was stabbed 28 times in the head, neck, back and chest in in North West England’s Culcheth Linear Park.

A boy and a girl, who were both aged 15 at the time, (now 16 but, because of their age they can’t be named, and are just being referred to as ‘Girl X’ and ‘Boy Y’), were charged with Brianna’s murder, and went on trial at Manchester Crown Court on Monday 27th November. 

Why Brianna?

Girl X was intrigued by Brianna months before her death… In text messages recovered from her phone sent to Boy Y in December 2022, (2 months before Brianna’s murder), she wrote of how she was “obsessed over someone called Brianna.”

“I’m obsessed over someone I know but don’t have feelings for them … She’s called Brianna … I don’t know how to explain. Also she has a d — — lol.”

X told Y that Brianna was “trans” and that she “sounded just like a girl and looked really pretty”.

Boy Y replied that they had “different tastes” and asked: “Tell me what you feel when you interact with it?”

Girl X said she ‘got nervous and stuff but her heart felt normal.’

The court heard that Y responded: “I don’t think you’re necessarily in love but I think you’re more curious and intrigued by its unnatural nature.”

X agreed that she found Brianna “fascinating”, adding, “She’s really different”.

Despite the discriminatory language used by Boy Y towards Brianna, referring to her as ‘it’ and talking of her ‘unnatural nature’, there is no indication that Brianna’s murder was a hate crime committed on the sole basis of her being trans. 

The discovery of a ‘hit list’ of four other targets who they were planning to kill, as well as text messages recovered from the defendants phones, and notes about serial killers found by police in Girl X’s bedroom, suggests that their obsession with death, violence and torture was a greater obsession than that of Brianna Ghey’s gender identity.

Not a transphobic hate crime necessarily then, the fact of the matter is that Girl X and Boy Y simply wanted to kill*, with Girl X’s preoccupation with Brianna seeing Brianna being the one to fall victim to their horrendous plans. It could’ve, though, been very different, had their initial plans not fallen through…

When their first intended target blocked Instagram messages from Girl X, the pair are said to have turned their attention to Brianna.

Boy Y replied saying: “Yeah, it’ll be easier and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl.”

The Downfall

The day after Brianna’s murder, Girl X sent a text message to Brianna which read, ‘Girl, is everything okay? Some teenage girl got killed in Linear Park it’s on news everywhere. And why did you ditch us for some random man from Manchester. Like wtf. That is so f***** up’ (an obvious attempt to set up a false defence).

Girl X then posted a tribute to Brianna on Snapchat, describing her as an “amazing friend” and that it was “so f****** sickening” what had happened.

Despite attempts to cover up their involvement, both defendants were arrested at their homes on the 12th February, just one day after Brianna was fatally attacked.

Following their arrest, police searching Girl X’s bedroom found a number of handwritten notes, including the plan to kill Brianna- 

‘Saturday 11th February 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey. I say code word to Boy Y. He stabs her in the back as I stab her in the stomach. Boy Y drags the body into the area. We both cover up the area with logs etc’, and another plan to kill which said: 

“Give them alcohol with sleeping pills, slit throat, dismember body, place pieces in bin bags.”

What Happens Next?

In Monday’s trial, which is expected to go on for two weeks, both Girl X and Boy Y denied inflicting any injuries and participating in Brianna’s killing in any way, pleading not guilt, despite the overwhelmingly incriminating evidence being to the contrary.

They are blaming each other for Brianna’s murder.

But, whatever the motive for the attack, whether it is ruled as being the result of transphobia- a hate crime- or ‘just’ cold blooded murder, whoever delivered the fatal blow, one thing remains unwaveringly true:

A light went out in the world far too prematurely on that day in February 2023, and we need justice for that.

❤

My heart is with all those who knew and loved Brianna.

May justice be sought, and may Brianna rest in peace.

❤