- Lauren Hurst & Judith Moritz & Rachel Lazzaro
- bbc news
image source, Handout to families/Cheshire Police
Brianna Gee stabbed 28 times at Culcheth Linear Park, Cheshire
Brianna Gee's killers have been sentenced to life in prison for her “brutal, premeditated and sadistic” murder.
In February 2023, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe murdered a 16-year-old boy in a park in Cheshire.
Mrs Justice Yip said Jenkinson's motive was a “deep desire to kill”, while Ratcliffe's motive was partly hostility towards Brianna's transgender identity.
She was given a 22-year sentence and Mr Ratcliffe was jailed for 20 years.
Both teenagers, who were 15 at the time of the murder and now 16, were seen staring at the judge and showed no visible reaction as the sentence was handed down.
Sentencing the pair at Manchester Crown Court, the judge said Brianna suffered 28 stab wounds and said: “I don't want to get into the murder itself, but it was brutal.”
“Taken together, these injuries indicate a very sustained and violent assault,” she added.
“Unfortunately, Brianna could not have lost consciousness right away and must have known she was being attacked.”
image source, cheshire police
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe stabbed Brianna 28 times to death in a Cheshire park.
Brianna's family was seated across a few benches. As Jenkinson's sentence was announced, her father, Peter Spooner, nodded.
Relatives of the perpetrator were also present. At the end of the hearing, Ms Jenkinson's mother was seen crying.
Mrs Justice Yip said Mr Jenkinson's fantasy of killing someone came true when he lured Brianna to the park.
She accepted that Mr Jenkinson was the architect of the scheme, but said it was “completely the wrong way to handle it”. [Ratcliffe] It's like being under Scarlett's control. ”
She added that the messages sent by Ratcliffe were “transphobic and dehumanizing,” and that Ratcliffe was “undoubtedly hostile to Brianna based on her transgender identity.”
Video: Judge sentences Brianna Gee's killer
In a victim impact statement read in court before sentencing, Brianna's mother Esther Gee said Ms Jenkinson and Mr Ratcliffe always “posed a danger to society”.
“I never want to give them the opportunity to carry out their sadistic fantasies on other children.”
He added that the “hardest thing” to accept was learning that one of the people charged with Brianna's murder was someone he believed was a friend of his daughter.
Brianna's sister Alisha Gee said she now has a hard time trusting new people because “it was a friend of Brianna's that she trusted who ended Brianna's life.”
image source, Handouts to families
Brianna was described by her mother as “fearless, strong and brave.”
Brianna's father said that fathering a transgender child was “difficult to deal with,” but that he was “proud to have another beautiful daughter.”
“We were in a new relationship and these two murderers stole it from both of us,” Spooner added.
Brianna's stepfather, Wesley Powell, told the court that although Brianna had a large following online, she was “in reality lonely, vulnerable and in need of close friends.”
“Both Eddie and Scarlett knew this, and they exploited her weaknesses as two predators targeting their prey,” he said.
File on 4 also tells the story behind the brutal murder of a 16-year-old on BBC Sounds.
The 18-day trial heard how Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were fascinated by violence, torture and murder.
Messages between the two show that they encouraged each other to think about how to actually carry out the murder.
During the trial, the two teenagers accused each other, but prosecutor Deanna Hier KC said that after Jenkinson was convicted, he admitted to a psychiatrist that he had stabbed Brianna.
“She took the knife from Eddie's hand and stabbed Brianna multiple times,” Heer said.
“She said Eddie threw Brianna to the floor and stabbed her three or four times, then panicked and said he didn't want to kill her, so he continued to stab her multiple times.
“I asked her how much, and she said 'a lot.' She was happy and excited about what she was doing.”
WATCH: Cheshire Police release footage of moment of arrest
After Mr. Jenkinson's arrest, a crumpled, handwritten note was found on his bedroom floor containing a “murder plan” to kill Brianna.
Notes were also made about serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, and Harold Shipman.
Ms Heer said Ms Jenkinson also created a second “kill list” of staff at the secure youth accommodation where she was being held, with the names of those caring for her. .
Mr Jenkinson's lawyer, Richard Pratt KC, told the court that Mr Jenkinson had been instructed to say something different to what he had said to the psychiatrist at the sentencing hearing.
Mrs Justice Yip said she got the impression that now that Jenkinson had been found guilty, he wanted to “taint himself in as bad a light as possible, given his admiration for the notorious murderer”.
“For the record, is her current explanation that Eddie did most of the stabbings, but that she certainly enjoyed it?” she said.
To this, Mr. Pratt replied, “Yes.”
A handwritten murder plan was found in Jenkinson's bedroom after his arrest.
Brianna and Jenkinson met at Birchwood Community High School and spent time together socially outside of school.
An investigation by File on 4 revealed that Jenkinson transferred to the school as an administrative transfer from nearby Culcheth High School in November 2022 after supplying younger students with marijuana confections.
She later attempts to poison Brianna before killing her.
Warrington Borough Council said an investigation into the incident at Culcheth High School was ongoing.
Brianna met Ratcliffe hours before he was killed.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, who had known each other since they were 11 years old at Culcheth High School, had been planning the murder for weeks, creating a “kill list” of five children before deciding to target Brianna.
Brianna suffered stab wounds to her head, neck and chest when she was attacked with a hunting knife in broad daylight at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington.
Both teenagers then returned home and continued their lives as if nothing had happened, with Jenkinson later paying tribute to Brianna with a photo of her.
Detectives later found a knife in Ratcliffe's bedroom with his DNA on the handle and Brianna's blood on the blade.
image source, cheshire police
Jenkinson posted a tribute on Snapchat after Brianna's death was reported in the media.
Ratcliffe's lawyer, Richard Littler KC, said Ratcliffe's language was “childish and immature” and was motivated by transphobia after he shared offensive messages about Brianna. He denied that.
“The names on Scarlett's kill list did not specify gender,” he told the court.
“They were just people she didn't like. Eddie just agreed with her.”
He said Ms Ratcliffe's motive was to support Ms Jenkinson “because he wanted to please her”.
“Sadism is the pleasure derived from inflicting pain, and we think that fits perfectly for Scarlett, but not for Eddie,” he said.
A handwritten murder plan was found in Jenkinson's bedroom after his arrest.
The court heard that a consultant forensic psychiatrist examined Ms Jenkinson and concluded that, although she was not mentally ill, she did exhibit severe “nonconducting antisocial disorder with limited prosocial emotions”. The circumstances surrounding the incident were investigated.
Mr Heer told the court: “In Scarlett's case she knew what she was doing was wrong and she knew it was very wrong.”
In Mr Ratcliffe's case, another consulting forensic psychiatrist found that he had mild autism and selective mutism.
The murder happened at Culcheth Linear Park.
Ahead of his sentencing, Jenkinson was seen fidgeting in the defendant's seat, folding and then unfolding a piece of paper.
She then drew an eye in her notebook, colored in the pupils, sketched in her eyebrows, and began talking to her support worker.
Ratcliffe sat quietly, staring straight ahead, before turning his attention to the Take A Break puzzle book he had brought into the courtroom.
The two teenagers were seated at opposite ends of a row of seats on the pier, with five adults, a support worker and a correctional officer, sandwiched between them.
Mr Jenkinson and Mr Ratcliffe have been prevented from being identified since their first appearance in court because of their age.
Judge Yip said the two teenagers had never been in trouble with police before and had taken part in a “brutal and premeditated murder that was sadistic in nature”.
She said the pair will serve life sentences but will only be released if the parole board determines they no longer pose a danger to society.
