The 16-year-old trans girl Brianna Ghey was found murdered in February last year, in Warrington, UK.
Two 16-year-olds, a girl and a boy, committed the crime together after developing a “warped” obsession with torture and killing, reports The Guardian. They are now sentenced at Manchester crown court to 20 and 22 years in prison, respectively.
“You both participated in a brutal and premeditated murder that was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility toward Brianna because of her transgender identity,” said Judge Amanda Yip on Friday afternoon.
– You chose Brianna because you both thought she would be an easy target.
“She was excited”
At first, both denied the murder charges and instead blamed each other.
The 16-year-old girl later admitted to participating in the murder of Brianna Ghey, who is described as an “open and proud transgender person” with a large following on Tiktok.
– She said she understood that she had stabbed Brianna enough times to kill her and was excited about what she did, says prosecutor Deanna Heer KC in court, referring to the 16-year-old’s confession to a psychologist.
The girl has also admitted to the psychologist that she intended to take parts of Brianna’s body as a symbol. She had previously also told her partner that she wanted to keep Brianna’s “beautiful eyes”. However, that was not the case.
The killer duo, both described as intelligent children, met when they were eleven years old. Later they also became acquainted with Brianna Ghey. According to the convicted girl, Brianna was murdered because the girl was afraid she no longer wanted to be her friend.
Death list – and handwritten plan
The 16-year-old girl eventually became obsessed with Brianna and soon put her on a list of children the couple wanted to kill. The others were four boys that the duo disliked. This appears among thousands of messages the killers sent to each other.
According to the evidence, the teenagers planned the murder carefully already at the age of 15. The boy wrote a plan by hand for how, where and when they would stab Brianna. They even had a code word – “gay” – to signal the start of the attack at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington.
Days before the murder, the girl told the boy she was “excited as hell” and wanted to “see the sheer terror on Brianna’s face and hear her scream in pain.”
The plan was executed almost to the letter. They stabbed their friend 28 times before being interrupted by a couple walking their dogs.