The tell-tale signs that gave away Brianna Ghey's killers' guilt: How Eddie Ratcliffe's avoidance and distraction techniques and Scarlett Jenkinson's 'fake shock' in police interviews exposed them as murderers

Listen to the Mail's acclaimed podcast The Trial outline all the details from a dramatic day in court as Brianna’s killers were sentenced and their names revealed for the first time. Click here or find it on Spotify or Apple 

A criminologist has revealed the tell-tale signs that indicated Brianna Ghey’s murderers were guilty of killing the teenager, as the two serial killer obsessives are sentenced to life in prison.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were jailed on Friday for a minimum term of 22 years and 20 years respectively, for the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey.

Dr David Holmes, criminal psychologist and author of Abnormal, Clinical and Forensic Psychology, told MailOnline that Ratcliffe was showing a very ‘autistic frontage’ and was very ‘non personal’ in the footage of him being arrested.

‘He avoids gaze and interaction, there’s a lot of displacement activity. He is not running away or anything but he is trying to occupy his mind in other ways. He is avoiding the whole thing.

‘It’s not particularly getting through to him as he fiddles.’

Eddie Ratcliffe (pictured) being interviewed by police about the murder of Brianna Ghey who was found with 28 stab wounds

Scarlett Jenkinson (pictured) being interviewed by police. Dr Holmes said Jenkinson is far more ‘interactive’ in footage of her arrest, making eye contact and being ‘far more alert and responsive’

A court sketch shows Scarlett Jenkinson (left) sitting alongside Eddie Ratcliffe (right) during the sentencing hearing

Brianna Ghey (pictured) was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in a park near Warrington, Cheshire on February 11 last year

CCTV footage released by police showed the moment Brianna (in white) met Jenkinson (X) and Ratcliffe (Y) at a bus stop on the day of her death

The body of ‘timid’ Brianna was found lying face-down in the mud with 28 stab wounds after the ‘frenzied’ attack at a popular park near Warrington, Cheshire on February 11 last year.

A judge ruled today that the 16-year-old was killed because she was trans and the CPS is now treating the murder as a hate crime.

Neither showed any emotion as they were told they must serve two decades behind bars, but Jenkinson’s mother began crying in court. It was earlier heard that Jenkinson has written a second ‘kill list’ since being taken into custody – including the names of some of those caring for her. 

Her twisted killers, described as a ‘danger to society’ by their victim’s mother, had planned the attack in great detail, with a handwritten note in Jenkinson’s room reading: ‘Saturday 11th February 2023. Victim: Brianna Ghey’. They then desperately sought to cover their tracks, with Jenkinson posting a Snapchat tribute that called Brianna ‘such an amazing friend’ and ‘one of the best people I’ve ever met’.

In contrast, Dr Holmes said Jenkinson is far more ‘interactive’ in footage of her arrest, making eye contact and being ‘far more alert and responsive’.

‘She appears to be curious as to why they think she has done it… it’s a tentative cover up plan that she is astonished has fallen apart.

Body language expert Doctor David Holmes said ‘He (Ratcliffe pictured) avoids gaze and interaction, there’s a lot of displacement activity’

In contrast, Dr Holmes said Jenkinson (pictured) appears to be curious as to why they think she has done it

The pair (pictured) were jailed on Friday for a minimum term of 22 years and 20 years respectively, for the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey

Brianna messaged her mother on the way to the park to say she was ‘scared’

‘She looks surprised they are arresting her when she made a plan that they wouldn’t be spotted.’

The criminal expert said she is ‘blind’ to the fact that people can see right through her ‘fabrications’.

He said Jenkinson is far more ‘confrontational and ready for battle’ than Ratcliffe.

Jenkinson made no reaction as she was told she must serve more than two decades behind bars today. She sat blinking occasionally as she was addressed by the judge and briefly asked a question of her intermediary, or approved adult, sat beside her in the dock.

Her mother, sat to her right in the public gallery, dabbed tears from her eyes with tissue.

Ratcliffe, also seated and looking directly in front of him, made no visible reaction as he was sentenced. He was led down to the cells without looking over at his mother, who was sat to the left of the dock.

During sentencing, Dr Holmes says Jenkinson acts more like Ratcliffe, depersonalising the situation and ‘not really responding’.

‘These individuals are indifferent by nature,’ he said. ‘The judge may as well have been texting them the results.’

The judge concluded that while Jenkinson was motivated by her ‘deep desire’ to kill, Ratcliffe was ‘motivated in part by hostility towards Brianna because she was transgender’.

He used ‘dehumanising’ language, repeatedly referring to her as ‘it’ and speculating about whether she would scream ‘like a man or a girl’. In one message, he told Jenkinson he wanted to kill Brianna because he ‘wanted to know what size d*** it had’.

Mrs Justice Yip said that because each killer was aware of the other’s motivations, she considered them both to be partly driven by transphobia.