Brianna Ghey killers named as Scarlett Jenkinson & Eddie Ratcliffe

The teenage murderers of 16-year old Brianna Ghey have been named as Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe today in their sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court.

Brianna, who was transgender, was stabbed 28 times in a "frenzied" attack in a Cheshire park on 11 February 2023. She formed part of a "kill list" that the teens devised.

Children appearing in youth or crown courts in England and Wales - whether as a victim, witness or defendant - generally cannot be identified. This was the case for the murder trial of the teens with journalists banned from providing their names to the public.

After they were convicted of her murder, the teenagers' legal teams opposed an application by the media to name them, citing possible welfare concerns. They also warned about the consequences for their families, including death threats received by Jenkinson's family.

But the judge, Mrs Justice Yip, said there was "a strong public interest in the full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case".

"The public will naturally wish to know the identities of the young people responsible as they seek to understand how children could do something so dreadful. Continuing restrictions inhibits full and informed debate and restricts the full reporting of the case."

Campaign group Howard League for Penal Reform, chief executive Andrea Coomber KC says that she is generally in favour of not naming young people who commit crimes.

"The naming of them and the shaming of them is a barrier to rehabilitation. It creates troubles for their safety in prison and upon release because these are children at the end of the day. They need to be given the space to grow and to move beyond their crime."

However, Sir Richard Henriques, who led the prosecution of the killers of Merseyside toddler James Bulger takes an opposite view.

"The public interest here requires or allows parents, grandparents, godparents, aunts and uncles to say to themselves, could this happen in our family? Are our children acquiring the correct values, the right values, our values? Could they view such things on the internet? How are they spending their spare time?

"Could our children lure somebody by lies into a park and then knife them to death? Are they members of the right organisations - should they join the cadets, the youth club and so on? That is the question that hundreds of thousands of families in this country will be asking of themselves when these facts are published with total inhibition."