Brianna Ghey called ‘it’ as ‘joke’ by murder accused, court hears

Trans teen Brianna Ghey was referred to as “it” by the teenagers accused of her murder as a “joke”, a court has heard.  

The teens, a boy and a girl only referred to as Boy Y and Girl X due to their age, are accused of murdering 16-year-old Ghey in Culcheth Linear Park, Warrington, on 11 February 2023. 

Ghey was stabbed 28 times in the head, neck and back during a violent assault which resulted in her death. 

The pair both deny the charge and jurors have previously heard that “each blames the other”. 

Appearing before the jury at Manchester Crown Court on the 14th day of the trial, the prosecution recounted how both defendants used offensive language to refer to Brianna. 

Girl X wrote in one message to Boy Y that Ghey “has a d**k lol”, to which the male co-accused replied: “Well what is it? Is it a fem boy or a t****y?”

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC questioned Boy Y’s use of such language asking him why he used ‘it’ to describe Brianna. 

“To joke with Girl X,” he answered. 

Heer quizzed him on what the joke was, he replied “I don’t know, it’s what I’ve learned from people at school, how they talk about people which I picked up.”

“Why do you simply do what they do, the people from school?,” she went on to ask, to which he said he has “insufficient knowledge” about himself to explain “why I copy what other people do”. 

Later, the prosecutor asked if he saw Ghey as “less important” than himself. Boy Y did not initial understand the question but then said he did not know if Ghey would have liked being called “it”. 

“Did you think Brianna would like to be called a ‘femboy thing?'” Heer further probed. 

“Probably not,” Boy Y answered. 

Previously the jury has heard how Girl X enjoyed watching “dark materials” which led her to have “dark fantasies”.

On the 10th day of the trial, the female teen admitted she began to have fantasies of killing people at the age of 14. 

She took an interest in disturbing material such as murder videos, torture and serial killers, which she would watch on the dark web.

However, Girl X said whilst she had made a plan to kill Ghey, she had no intention of carrying the act out. 

Days prior to this, the court heard how police discovered a handwritten note detailing plans to stab Brianna Ghey to death in Girl X’s bedroom. 

Boy Y also previously described his female co-defendant as “not a normal person” who allegedly calls herself a Satanist, watches torture videos and likes to “joke about like dead babies and stuff”. 

The trial continues.