Brianna Ghey’s killer does not appear to be a serious risk, review finds

Protection services involved with the girl before the teenager’s murder were unaware of her “interest in violent behaviour” and had “no reason to be concerned” about the contact, a review has found.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were jailed for life for the “brutal, premeditated and sadistic” murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in a Warrington park in February 2023.

Jenkinson, who is 15 years old, has transferred to Brianna’s school in November 2022 after spiking young students at the former school.

An its safeguarding review found there was “no known reason” to stop Jenkinson “mixing freely” with students after her move and nothing to suggest she was “serious risk”.

Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, said the review “clearly found that no one could have predicted what happened”.

“We are now focused on looking forward to creating a safer, more empathetic and resilient society in Brianna’s legacy,” he said.

Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were convicted of murdering the transgender teenager in December 2023 and a judge later lifted a reporting ban on naming them when they were sentenced two months later.

A review of Jenkinson’s contacts was then ordered, covering interactions with support agencies in Warrington.

It does not cover Ratcliffe, as he lives in neighboring Wigan.

It is said that Jenkinson had transferred from Culcheth High School to Birchwood Community High School in November 2022 after he gave a 13-year-old boy cannabis sweets, which caused him to become ill.

It was found that Jenkinson had been seen by a GP and children’s mental health services in the years before the murder, but the guarding agency did not know about the two attempts before killing Brianna in January 2023.

It also found that he had no idea he was using the dark web to watch videos of torture and murder, a fact he revealed at trial.

The review said Jenkinson met with GPs and children’s mental health services to discuss her anxiety and self-harm in November 2021 and held several subsequent meetings.

Speaking in the week before Brianna’s death, Jenkinson described hearing a voice “saying obscenities and insulting her”.

However, it said that clinical evidence for Jenkinson’s diagnosis of “dissocial conduct disorder”, which was revealed at sentencing, did not exist before the murder because the mental health service was “still in the process of evaluating … and formulating a clinical opinion” at the time of the attack.

The review also said that Jenkinson’s spiking of a younger student in September 2023 was “at best, or worse a deliberate attempt to provide a terrifying experience”, but not behavior “at a level that could reasonably be expected of a practitioner.” that (he) will commit murder”.

However, the review found a security file detailing unsubstantiated suspicions about Jenkinson’s marijuana use and history of self-harm was not shared among schools, which would have been necessary to help him succeed.

The review said the police chose not to take further action and supported the intervention of Culcheth High School after a spiked student refused to make a complaint.

Despite this, he found that officers had to visit Jenkinson and his parents to explain that this was a “serious offence”, which also allowed them to “assess the family dynamics”.

In conclusion, said the “practitioner” who knew Jenkinson before the murder “did not know anything that would make him think he was a serious risk to others”.

“They don’t understand Scarlett’s propensity for violence,” he said.

“They see no reason to worry about any contact with Brianna that they know.”

The review made a number of recommendations on how agencies should handle the movement of vulnerable children between schools in the future and how to support the protection of children online.

It also said Warrington Safeguarding Partnerships (WSP) should seek evidence from the police that they have completed a study on home visits and seek assurances from each agency involved in the review that learning points have been identified and implemented.

A representative for WSP, which includes Cheshire Constabulary, Warrington Borough Counci and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said “the learning points in the report should, and will, be shared and embraced locally”.

He added that the review had found “nothing that could make sense” of Jenkinson’s actions and while it would “provide comfort to those affected by this tragic case … to identify improvements that can be made”.

Emma Mills, head teacher at Birchwood High School, said hearing the review “confirmed that we have, and continue to, prioritize the wellbeing of all our children”.

“We continue to remember Brianna and work with her family to help build a positive legacy for her,” he said.