A teenager accused of murdering transgender schoolgirl Brianna Ghey drew up a handwritten plan for how she and a male friend would kill the 16-year-old, a court heard today.
The note, which was headed ‘Saturday 11th February 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey’, was found in the 15-year-old’s bedroom following her arrest after Brianna was found dying from 28 stab wounds, jurors were told.
An image of the note was sent by the torture-obsessed schoolgirl – who can only be referred to as Girl X due to her age – to her friend, Boy Y, on February 3 after the pair drew up a list of five people they wanted to kill, Manchester Crown Court heard today.
It read: ‘Meet Boy Y at wooden posts 1pm. Walk down to library…bus stop.
‘Wait until Brianna gets off bus then the 3 of us walk to linear park. Go to the pipe/tunnel area.
‘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.’
‘It is clearly, the prosecution say, a plan to kill Brianna Ghey,’ prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said.
Brianna was living as a young woman at the time of her death but had been born a boy
Brianna, 16, was found with fatal wounds on a path in Culcheth Linear Park, near her home in Warrington, Cheshire
Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther arriving at Manchester Crown Court on Monday as two teenagers stand trial accused of murdering her daughter
Brianna’s father Peter Spooner rubs his eye as he arrives at court with his partner by his side
After making arrangements to meet Brianna on February 11, Girl X messaged Boy Y to say she was ‘excited as f***’, Miss Heer said as she continued opening the prosecution case today.
At 3.13pm, dog walker Kathryn Vize called 999 to say she had found a badly injured female at Culcheth Linear Park and had seen her attackers running away.
An air ambulance was dispatched to the former railway cutting but Brianna had been stabbed 28 times to the head, neck, back and chest, with her jugular vein severed, causing ‘catastrophic blood loss’, Miss Heer said.
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Another knife blow penetrated Brianna’s heart, she added, and she was pronounced dead at the scene at 4.02pm.
Brianna died after suffering 28 separate stab wounds inflicted using a hunting knife in a ‘sustained and violent assault’, jurors heard yesterday.
The trial was told that there was ‘no dispute’ that Girl X and Boy Y – both now 16 – were seen running away, or that they had discussed killing Brianna.
But both deny participating in the killing, jurors were told, instead blaming each other.
However Miss Heer said the prosecution case was that ‘whoever delivered the fatal blows, both defendants are equally guilty’.
‘Acting together, they planned and executed their plan to kill her,’ she added.
In the days before Brianna was stabbed, Miss Heer said the pair exchanged a string of messages referring to the schoolgirl as ‘it’ – with Girl X saying she was ‘obsessed’ with her.
When their first intended target blocked Instagram messages from Girl X, the pair are said to have turned their attention to Brianna.
Boy Y sent a message to Girl X saying ‘yeah, it’ll be easier and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl’.
Their first plan was to lure Brianna to the park on January 28 – also a Saturday – on the pretext of using cocaine together, with Girl X writing: ‘Let’s stab her. Back and throat.’
However in the event, Brianna messaged to say she couldn’t come after all, with Girl X writing to Boy Y to say she was ‘f****** p****d’.
In a later message, she suggested she could kill Brianna by giving her an overdose of cocaine, but then said told Boy X ‘let’s just stab her. It’s more fun.’
The pair then allegedly put in place their plan to persuade Brianna to meet them in the park on February 11.
After making new arrangements to meet Brianna on February 11 – on the false pretext of taking cocaine together – jurors were told that Girl X asked Boy Y about the knife he was bringing, questioning whether it would ‘definitely 100% kill her?’
He assured her that it would, replying: ‘Yes, it cuts my skin easily.’
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A handout photograph of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who died after being stabbed 28 times in February
Transgender schoolgirl Brianna Ghey died aged 16 in February this year. She was a pupil at Birchwood High School in Warrington
Brianna – who was ‘anxious’ and rarely went out alone, according to her mother – left her home in Birchwood, near Warrington, Cheshire, at 12.45pm on February 11 and boarded a bus to Culcheth, buying a single child ticket.
She was wearing a short grey tartan skirt, long white socks and a fluffy white hooded jacket, and carrying a pink and white checked shoulder bag. She wore her hair long and was wearing glasses.
‘No doubt because of her distinctive appearance, people who saw her that day remembered her,’ Ms Heer said.
On the journey at about 1.41pm, Brianna sent her mother Esther a message reading: ‘I’m on the bus by myself, I’m scared.’
Her mother replied that it was ‘good’, jurors heard.
Boy Y – wearing a dark jacket with the hood up – had meanwhile been dropped off by his mother opposite a Sainsbury’s supermarket and met up with Girl X.
CCTV showed Boy Y buying a bottle of Coca-Cola while Girl X bought a bottle of Dr Pepper, it was said.
Girl X had set up a fake Snapchat account of a fictional drug dealer, jurors heard, swapping messages to make it appear they had arranged to meet.
Witnesses saw Brianna walking towards the linear park with Girl X and Boy Y after 2pm that day, the court heard.
Girl X was sending messages to and from the fictional drug dealer, named ‘Nathan’, Miss Heer said.
At 2.15pm Brianna sent a message to Girl X saying: ‘Girl, Ima wait where I am until we have drugs lol. I’m too anxious.’
Miss Heer said it showed that Brianna believed they were indeed meeting up to take drugs together – but also that it appeared she felt something was ‘amiss’.
At 2.30pm she sent a message to a friend, saying: ‘Girl X is so weird girl. I think she’s pretending to have a dealer.’
At 3.06pm, a message was sent from Brianna’s phone reading: ‘Girl where are you?’
Several seconds later, the Snapchat account records that Girl X deleted a chat.
Minutes later, a dog walker came across a bloodied Brianna lying face-down in the park, as two teenagers ran away.
Dog walker Mrs Vize called 999 at 3.13pm saying ‘somebody had been attacked and that she had seen the attackers run away’, jurors were told.
She told police a boy and girl in their teens had run away after seeing her.
Police at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire, after Brianna was found dying
Police forensics officers walk into the park to investigate in February 2022. Two teenagers deny a charge of murdering Brianna Ghey
The court heard that a post mortem found Brianna had a number of injuries consistent with raising her arms and trying to defend herself from her attacker.
‘The number of wounds and the pattern of injuries, taken as a whole, suggests that Brianna was subjected to a sustained and violent assault with a knife,’ Ms Heer said.
She told the court bottles of soft drinks were found at the scene with DNA from Girl X and Boy Y on, indicating they had been present.
She said they remained together as they walked away from the park and were spotted on dashcam footage at 3.15pm.
When the area was searched by police, Brianna’s mobile phone was found hidden in a drain, the jury was told.
The two defendants then separated and went home, Ms Heer said, but remained in contact through messages.
She said they kept each other informed of press reports about a body being found in the park while ‘feigning ignorance’ about what had happened.
Boy Y was also searching online for ways to combat anxiety, the court heard.
Girl X, who is from Warrington, has been found to have ‘traits of autism and ADHD’ since her arrest and showed ‘high levels of anxiety’, jurors were told.
Boy Y, who is from Leigh, Greater Manchester, had been diagnosed with autism, they were told, along with a ‘high level of social anxiety’.
As a result, the trial is being conducted with ‘more informality’ than normal, the trial judge, Mrs Justice Yip, told them, with both accused being helped to follow proceedings by ‘intermediaries’.
The trial continues.
