Eddie Ratcliffe, one of two teenagers convicted of the murder of Brianna Ghey, has had his appeal to reduce the length of his prison sentence dismissed.
Radcliffe and co-defendant Scarlett Jenkinson—both 15 at the time—had stabbed Brianna, a 16-year-old boy who identified as a girl, 28 times with a hunting knife at Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington, on Feb. 11, 2023.
In February of this year, Mrs. Justice Yip sentenced both to life in prison, ordering Ratcliffe to serve a minimum of 20 years and Jenkinson a minimum of 22 years.
Lawyers for Ratcliffe said in a hearing in London that Yip had failed to take into account their client’s “immaturity” and that the minimum sentence was too high. They also said he had been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder.
However, three senior judges rejected the bid at the Court of Appeal on Thursday, saying that the original judgement was correct.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr. Justice Lavender and Mr. Justice Murray, said that Yip’s “choice of a starting point of 20 years for a minimum term was correct, for the reasons that she gave.”
“The judge was then entitled to take into account the aggravating factors as identified,” Carr said.
‘Dehumanising’ Attitude
Richard Littler, KC, for Ratcliffe, had earlier told the court that his client had poor social skills and was immature, “closer to the starting point of a 14-year-old rather than a 17-year-old boy.”Littler said that his sentence had been “wrongly and artificially inflated” and issues relating to his client’s maturity and ability to express himself were not fully taken into account.
Deanna Heer, KC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), had argued that Ratcliffe’s attitude towards Brianna had been “dehumanising” and that the murder involved “sadistic conduct.”
Heer had argued that the sentence was not “manifestly excessive,” but appropriate, based on the evidence in the case. She also argued that Ratcliffe’s autism diagnosis “did not prevent him from understanding what he was doing.”
‘Predators Stalking Their Prey’
Ratcliffe and Jenkinson had been convicted of Brianna’s murder in December 2023. Because they were both 16 years old at the time, they could not have been named for legal reasons and were referred to throughout the trial as Girl X and Boy Y.
During the trial at Manchester Crown Court, the pair had sought to blame each other, but they were both found guilty of murder.
The trial had heard the pair shared a “kill list,” which included Brianna and also several other children who one or the other of them had grudges against.
Jurors were told that the two came from normal backgrounds but had a fascination for violence and a “thirst for killing.”
The court had also heard that despite Brianna having a large online following, the teen was withdrawn, anxious, and rarely left the house.
A statement from Brianna’s stepfather Wesley Powell, read to the court in February, had said, “Brianna had a large online following but in reality, she was lonely, vulnerable and in need of a close friend.”
“Both Eddie and Scarlett knew this and preyed upon her vulnerabilities, acting as two predators stalking their prey,” Powell added.
