Brianna Ghey’s mother breaks down in heartbreaking interview and says she would meet killer’s mother
The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey has said she does not blame the parents of her daughter’s killers and that she would be open to meeting them.
In a tearful interview, Esther Ghey said she would like to understand what the life of 16-year-old murderer Scarlett Jenkinson was like and that she appreciated how difficult it was being a parent.
It comes after Jenkinson and 16-year-old Eddie Ratcliffe were both sentenced to 22 and 20 years respectively for the “ferocious” murder of Brianna, who was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in a Warrington park last year.
“I would like to understand how their life was and what they went through. I would also want her to know that I do not blame her for what her child has done,” Ms Ghey told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“I understand how difficult it is being a parent in this current day and age. If she ever wants to speak to me, I’m here.”
Ms Ghey also said she did not “carry any hate” for the killers, telling Kuenssberg: “I don’t carry any hate for either of them because hate is such a harmful emotion to the person that’s holding that. With regards to forgiving them, I think that no, not really.”
Ms Ghey is launching a campaign calling for social media apps to be banned on smartphones for children and is also campaigning for searches for inappropriate material to be flagged to parents following the sentencing on Friday.
She said: “We’d like a law introduced so that there are mobile phones that are only suitable for under-16s.
“So if you’re over 16, you can have an adult phone, but then under the age of 16, you can have a children’s phone, which will not have all of the social media apps that are out there now.
“Also to have software that is automatically downloaded on the parent’s phone, which links to the children’s phone, that can highlight keywords.”
In the pair’s sentencing, the judge ruled the “exceptionally brutal” murder had elements of both sadism by Jenkinson and transphobic hate on the part of Ratcliffe.
Mrs Justice Yip concluded Jenkinson “enjoyed” the killing and that her “deep desire to kill” was the driving force behind the murder, while the judge also highlighted Ratcliffe’s “dehumanising language” when she passed sentence.
Jenkinson, while aged 14, downloaded a TOR internet browser app, to watch videos of the torture and murder of real people, in “red rooms” on the “dark web”.
She grew an interest in serial killers, making notes on their methods and admitted enjoying “dark fantasies” about killing and torture, the pair living in a secret world of warped interests in murder and cruelty, the trial heard.
Brianna had thousands of followers on TikTok, but in reality was a withdrawn, shy and anxious teenager who struggled with depression and rarely left her home.
Jenkinson told Ratcliffe she wanted to stab Brianna “jus coz its fun lol… I want to see the pure horror on her face and hear her scream”.