Killers of trans teenager Brianna Ghey to be named for first time today

The girl and boy who murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey are to be sentenced for murder and publicly named for the first time.

The defendants, both 16, identified only as girl X and boy Y during their four-week trial last December at Manchester Crown Court, face a mandatory life sentence.

They were aged 15 when they carried out the “disturbing” plan to murder Brianna, 16, in a “frenzied and ferocious” attack with a hunting knife.

Both will be named for the first time when they are sentenced later on Friday after a senior judge, Mrs Justice Yip, indicated she will lift a court order banning the press from identifying them.

Anxious and vulnerable Brianna was stabbed 28 times in the head, neck, chest and back after being lured to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11 last year.

Each defendant had denied murder and blamed the other for the killing, which was described as “horrific” by detectives.

Intelligent, “high functioning” and coming from normal backgrounds, the trial heard the pair had a fascination with violence, torture and murder and a “thirst for killing”.

Neither had been in trouble with police before.

They had discussed Brianna’s murder for weeks, detailed in a handwritten murder plan and phone messages found by detectives.

Jurors were told it was “difficult to fathom” how the two child defendants could carry out such a disturbing crime.

Girl X, while aged 14, downloaded a TOR internet browser app to watch videos of the torture and murder of real people, in “red rooms” on the “dark web”.

She developed an interest in serial killers, making notes on their methods, and admitted enjoying “dark fantasies” about killing and torture, with the pair living in a secret world of warped interest in murder and cruelty, their trial heard.

Boy Y, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and is non-verbal, and girl X, diagnosed with traits of autism and ADHD, are both held in secure youth detention.

Girl X claimed that while she enjoyed fantasies about murder she never intended any of it to become reality while the boy claimed he just played along and never wanted to harm anyone.

They will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court.

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