London: The two 16-year-olds convicted of murdering a transgender teenager in northwest England almost a year ago have been jailed for life with minimum prison sentences of 20 and 22 years.
Judge Amanda Yip has lifted restrictions on reporting the names of the killers of 16-year-old Brianna Guy. They were identified at Manchester Crown Court as Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.credit: AP
The horrific murder shocked the nation. Guy was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in broad daylight after being lured to a park in the town of Warrington on February 11, 2023.
Yip sentenced Ratcliffe and Jenkinson to mandatory life imprisonment and ordered them to serve a minimum of 20 and 22 years, respectively, before becoming eligible for parole. Had they been adults – over the age of 18 – they would have faced much longer minimum sentences. They will be transferred to adult prisons when they turn eighteen. Neither of them showed a clear reaction when they were sentenced.
“You will only be released if it is determined in the future that you no longer pose a risk,” the judge said. “You both participated in a brutal and planned murder that was sadistic in nature, and the secondary motive was hostility toward Brianna, because of her transgender identity.”
Jenkinson faces a longer prison sentence, as she was clearly the ringleader, according to Yip, and “enjoyed” killing Guy.
Brianna Guy, 16, was killed in northwest England last year.credit: AP
“Scarlett, your motive was to act out your fantasies,” she said.
Neither of them's names were revealed during the trial, which ended in December. Under English law, young offenders are usually protected from restrictions that prevent them from giving their names until they are 18 years old. Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were previously known as “Girl X” and “Boy Y”, and were both 15 years old at the time of the murder. .
