UK Teenagers On Trial Accused Of Killing 16-Year-Old Transgender Girl
The pair discussed killing transgender girl in the days and weeks before she died, court said.
London:
A 16-year-old transgender girl was killed in a “sustained and violent assault” by two other teens with a “preoccupation” for “violence, torture and death”, a UK court was told on Monday.
Brianna Ghey was stabbed 28 times to her head, neck, back and chest in Warrington, northwest England, in February, jurors heard, as her two alleged killers’ trial got under way.
Her body was discovered by dog walkers in a park.
The case drew international attention and shock in Britain, in particular after two 15-year-olds were charged with her murder.
The pair — a boy and a girl now aged 16 who cannot be named because of their ages — discussed killing Ghey in the days and weeks before she died, the prosecutor at Manchester Crown Court said.
The jury heard each defendant deny murder and deny participating in killing Ghey, who was born male but lived as a female.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer said each defendant “blames the other” but that both were culpable.
“The prosecution case is that, whoever it was who delivered the fatal blow or blows, both defendants are equally guilty,” she added.
“Acting together, they planned and executed their plan to kill Brianna Ghey.”
The prosecutor outlined that messages recovered from their phones showed a “preoccupation” with “violence, torture and death” and showed them discussing how they wanted to kill people they knew, including Ghey.
“The messages demonstrate also how, over time, they encouraged one another to think about how they would actually carry out a killing,” she said.
“And the messages show how they planned together to kill Brianna in just the way that she was in fact killed.”
In one message, the teenage girl on trial said “I love watching torture vids” (videos) that she had found “on the dark web”, the jury was told.
In a reply, her male co-defendant sent her a photo of a hunting knife and said: “Spent my money. I bought a knife.”
Heer said that knife was used to kill Ghey just six weeks later.
In another message read to the court, the girl told her co-accused that the pair “can kill Brianna” the following day.
The boy replied that he wanted “to see if it will scream like a man or a girl”.
The trial continues Tuesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
