Brianna Ghey was stabbed 28 times by two teenagers who spent ‘weeks’ discussing killing her, a court heard today.
Girl X and Boy Y, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are standing trial at Manchester Crown Court today in the death of the teenager.
Brianna, 16, was found with multiple stab wounds in Linear Park in Culcheth, a village that sits between Liverpool and Manchester on February 11.
The teenager, who was trans, went to a school in Birchwood only three miles from the park.
A 15-year-old girl from Warrington and a 15-year-old boy from Leigh – both nearby towns – were charged with murder four days after Brianna’s death.
Both teens, now aged 16, have pleaded not guilty.
Brianna was found on a path by a couple out walking their dogs who phoned emergency services at 3.03pm, Cheshire Constabulary said.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court it was a dry but dreary day when Kathyrn Vize and her husband Andrew took their dogs out for a walk in Linear Park.
‘But as they walked along, they saw on the path ahead of them two people, a male and a female,’ Heer said.
‘Mrs Vize saw the male bend down, as if to tend to a dog, before both he and the female left the path and made their way into an adjacent field, breaking into a run as they did so.
‘As they continued along the path, Mr and Mrs Vize discovered that it was not a dog that the male had been bending over, but the bloodied body of a young woman lying face down in the mud.’
Heer said Brianna, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had been stabbed 28 times to the head, neck, back and chest.
‘A stab wound to the neck completely severed her jugular vein and carotid artery resulting in catastrophic blood loss which, in itself, would have been enough to kill her,’ she said.
‘There can be no doubt that she was the victim,’ Keer added, ‘of a sustained and violent assault.’
The jury was told each defendant denied murder and denied participating in killing Brianna.
‘Each blames the other. The prosecution case is that, whoever it was who delivered the fatal blow or blows, both defendants are equally guilty,’ Heer said.
‘Acting together, they planned and executed their plan to kill Brianna Ghey.’
Heer accused Girl X and Boy Y of being the two people seen running from Brianna’s body, adding ‘that in the days and weeks leading up to that day, they had discussed killing her’.
Text messages showed this, according to Heer.
‘I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl,’ he messaged the girl, with the girl later describing stabbing Brianna as ‘more fun’, according to the messages.
On December 15, Heer said, Girl X texted Boy Y that she was ‘obsessed’ with Brianna, with Boy Y asking: ‘Is it a femboy or a t****y?’
The girl said she thought Brianna was pretty – the boy had different tastes, he told her.
On January 1, Boy Y sent Girl X a photo of a hunting knife and told her: ‘Spent my money. I bought a knife.’
‘It was this knife, members of the jury,’ Heer said, ‘that was to be used to kill Brianna Ghey just six weeks after this image had been sent.’
By January 18, the ‘obsession’ had spiralled into Girl X discussing ways to harm Brianna, Keer said, including texting Boy Y she had given the teen enough ibuprofen gel tablets to ‘kill her’.
Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, recalled that Brianna was sick around this time.
Heer added: ‘Indeed, it is accepted that Brianna Ghey was killed with a knife that belonged to Boy Y, a knife which he told Girl X that he would be bringing with him that day and which he said was sharp enough to kill her.’
Girl X and Boy Y knew one another well, Heer told the court, and message exchanges ‘show a preoccupation with violence and torture and death and record them discussing how they wanted to kill the people that they knew’.
Texts, among other things, showed how Girl X said she owned a ‘a really shape blade, the same one that Sweeney Todd uses’.
During one exchange in early December, Girl X sent Boy Y a video advert for an underground site for people who like rape, snuff, torture and murder.
‘I love watching torture vids. Real ones on the dark web,’ Girl X told Boy Y, the jury heard, with Heer adding that she told Boy Y she was ‘happy cos’ I finally found a good red room’.
Justice Amanda Yip is presiding over the court proceedings, which were briefly delayed before jury selection.
To her family, Brianna was a ‘much-loved daughter, granddaughter and baby sister’.
‘Brianna was beautiful, witty and hilarious,’ her family said in a statement shared by police in March.
Her wit was also remembered by Birchwood Community High School, which added that from her humour to her handbags, pupils and faculty alike will miss ‘all the things that made Brianna the truly unique individual that she was’.
Thousands gathered to hold candlelit vigils up and down Britain in the days after Brianna’s death to pay tribute.
More than £114,000 was raised in a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help Brianna’s family with funeral costs.
Brianna was laid to rest in a ceremony that drew hundreds of mourners who came wearing pink at the request of the Ghey family.
Carrying pink balloons, trans Pride flags and one another, mourners watched as a horse-drawn carriage carrying a pink coffin was taken through Warrington.
The trial continues.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/bHi2Umj
0 Comments