The Tragic Betrayal of Brianna Ghey: A Shocking Case of Deception and Murder

[00:00:00] The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.

[00:00:34] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares.

[00:00:46] It was February 11, 2023. Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old from Cheshire, England with fiery red hair and a love for TikTok, was like any other teenager starting her Saturday morning. Dressed in a cozy white hoodie, her head buried in her phone, she stepped out of her home, ready to meet a friend.

[00:01:07] It all started with a text. Her friend, 15-year-old Scarlett Jenkinson, invited Brianna to meet her at the library just after 1.30pm. Despite her social anxiety, Brianna pushed through the fear. She texted her mom while on her way saying, I'm on the bus by myself, I'm scared. Her mom, supportive and proud, replied,

[00:01:30] That's well good. But Brianna would never see those words. Within just two hours, Brianna's life would be violently ripped away by Scarlett and her accomplice, 15-year-old Eddie Ratcliffe. The friendly face she was meeting, a girl she thought she could trust, would turn out to be the one who betrayed her, leading her to a remote spot where she could be attacked and left lifeless, face down in the dirt.

[00:01:56] Her death shocked the nation, highlighting the ongoing issues of transphobia and violence against transgender individuals. So, dim the lights, put your phone down, and listen to the chilling details of Brianna's final moments and the twisted truth behind her murder, which many believe was a hate crime. So let's jump right in.

[00:02:18] Brianna lived in Birchwood, a quiet suburban town in the borough of Warrington, Cheshire, in the United Kingdom, with her mom and her older sister. By all accounts, Brianna was like any other teenager. She loved Roblox, makeup, and mini skirts. She had an irrepressible sense of humor that made her friends laugh. But there was one thing that set her apart. She was transgender. And for Brianna, living authentically as a girl wasn't just a choice.

[00:02:47] It was a fight that she had to win each and every day. Brianna was born male. But from a very young age, she knew that something didn't match between her body and her identity. She was simply sent to this world in the wrong body. And as she grew older, that disconnect, the dysphoria, it became harder for her to bear. Brianna's life was marked by struggle.

[00:03:11] By the time she was a teenager, she had developed an eating disorder that sent her to the hospital on more than one occasion. She became reclusive, sometimes going weeks without washing or brushing her teeth. Her family didn't know how deep her pain went until one day, at 14 years old, Brianna finally confided in her mother, Esther. She told her mom that she wanted to live as a girl. She needed to transition.

[00:03:40] She needed to be seen as who she truly was, or else she feared her life would not be worth living. Brianna even threatened suicide if she didn't receive the hormone medication that would allow her to begin her physical transition. Esther was initially worried about the long-term effects of hormone therapy at a young age, especially puberty blockers and estrogen. But as a mother, she had only one thing on her mind, Brianna's happiness.

[00:04:10] She decided to support her daughter's transition. And so, Brianna started taking the hormones. Slowly, she blossomed into the girl that she knew herself to be. Her hair grew longer. She began experimenting with makeup. She wore the girl's school uniform that she had always dreamed of. And for the first time in years, she started to shine again. She wasn't just a girl going through a transition.

[00:04:38] Brianna was a teenager doing what teenagers do. She was full of life, full of spirit. She loved all the things that young girls love. Fashion, beauty, and online gaming. She was known for her TikTok videos, where she'd post about her transition and connect with others who were going through similar struggles. Her followers adored her.

[00:05:02] She became an inspiration to countless young people, showing them that it was okay to be unapologetically themselves. In the online world, Brianna found a supportive, loving group of friends. People who understood her, who respected her. She wasn't just surviving anymore. She was thriving in her own unique way. But, as so often happens, the real world wasn't so kind.

[00:05:29] It's no secret that bullying and harassment are a reality for many trans teens. Brianna, despite the joy that she had found online, was still navigating a world where she was sometimes misunderstood. And for some, her identity wasn't just a difference. It was a target. And like so many of us, the lockdowns during the pandemic, it exasperated her anxiety. She didn't even want to go to school. She really didn't even want to leave the house.

[00:05:59] Yet, eventually, she would find the strength to start attending her classes at Birchwood High School again. She had big plans for the future. Finishing high school and then taking college courses in hair and beauty. There were accommodations made for her so that she could get an education while still acknowledging her severe social anxiety. So, she was put into a smaller, separate classroom with other students who also needed accommodations made.

[00:06:28] It was there that 16-year-old Brianna met 15-year-old Scarlett Jenkinson. Scarlett had recently transferred to Birchwood High School in October 2022 from her former school following an incident involving her giving another student drugs. The two became quick friends and they'd sometimes go to McDonald's together after school.

[00:06:50] As you can imagine, Brianna's mom was thrilled to see her daughter spending a little less time online and a little more time with a real-life friend. But she could not have known that Scarlett had a dark side. Scarlett lived with her parents and siblings in a quiet home in Colchef, located just north of where Brianna lived.

[00:07:13] Like Brianna, Scarlett spent much of her time in her bedroom, though her world was far different. Scarlett was a teenager who, on the surface, seemed like any other. She had a boyfriend, she enjoyed video games, and she kept to herself in the privacy of her room. But beneath this facade, something darker was growing. She became consumed by an online world of evil and cruelty.

[00:07:42] A world far removed from the playful games and harmless chats that most teens engage in. Scarlett's online life was twisted by the kind of violence that no one should ever witness. Snuff videos, torture clips, an obsession with serial killers. And obviously, I can understand having an interest in true crime. It's human nature to want to understand these things and how they happen,

[00:08:08] but there is a very clear difference between wanting to learn more through empathy and then idolizing serial killers. Scarlett went as far as to download a special browser on her phone where she could watch things on the dark web. She also kept extensive notes about her favorite serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez. These were the things that took root in her mind,

[00:08:33] and over time, they festered, distorting her view of reality and warping her desires. She became obsessed with death. She became obsessed with killing. And these weren't just thoughts that she kept to herself. As Scarlett's obsession with violence grew, she found a kindred spirit in Eddie Ratcliffe, a friend that she had known since she was just 11 years old. Eddie, who lived in Lee with his parents and siblings,

[00:09:02] was much like Scarlett in some ways. Described as a bright teenager with aspirations of becoming a microbiologist, Eddie was on track to attend university with great grades. But like Scarlett, Eddie spent a significant amount of time alone in his room. The two teens who had known each other for years spent countless hours talking online, sharing their thoughts and feelings about the world,

[00:09:29] and in Scarlett's case, about her increasingly dark fascinations. Together, they fed each other's twisted desires. On December 15, 2022, Scarlett confided in Eddie about her growing obsession with Brianna. This wasn't the typical crush or a fleeting interest. It was something much darker, a fixation driven by Brianna's identity as a transgender girl. Scarlett would write, quote,

[00:10:08] She told Eddie that Brianna was, quote, She was transgender, pretty, and attractive. They discussed the nature of Scarlett's obsession, and Eddie, in a chilling statement, made his feelings very clear. He said, Notice how he refers to Brianna as it?

[00:10:38] This would be a common trend any time the two talked about Brianna. He seemingly refused to speak about her as a female or even just as a human being. Scarlett and Eddie weren't from broken homes. Both of them came from respectable families. Eddie's father worked as a manager of a truck company, and his mother was a ski instructor and graphic designer. Scarlett's father was a plaster, and her mother was a secondary school teacher.

[00:11:07] From the outside, both families seemed totally ordinary. But inside, a dangerous, insidious bond was forming, one that would lead to a horrific crime. Soon, Scarlett and Eddie decided that it was time to put Brianna on the list. A list that already included four boys that they wanted to kill for various reasons. One they described as a knob,

[00:11:35] while the other was seen as competition to Eddie, who was interested in dating the boy's girlfriend. The other two, allegedly, they were enemies of Scarlett's boyfriend. And it was as simple as that to get added to the list. But what had Brianna done to be included? Nothing at all. She was nothing but loving and kind. But she was included on this list simply for being seen as different.

[00:12:01] Scarlett and Eddie would spend the next few months making plans for how they were going to kill everyone on their hit list. Scarlett talked about keeping body pieces belonging to their victims as trophies. One message said, quote, If we kill this boy, can I keep some things? A couple of teeth and an eye? And if you cut his heels and chop his tongue, he can't run or talk. I don't know what I would get of him. She said that she wanted to keep Brianna's pretty eyes.

[00:12:31] They even went as far as discussing cannibalism. Scarlett told Eddie, quote, I'm going to eat human flesh. Eddie advised her to cook it first because it would be safer to eat that way. By the end of January, the pair had decided that they would kill their first victim, one of the boys on the list, who's not been named because he's a minor. They decided that they would lure him to Linear Park using a fake profile that they would create on Instagram named The Come Lord. Okay.

[00:13:01] At first, they thought that they would stab him once they got him to the park, but then they thought it might be easier to hang him. They could make a noose, make it look like he had killed himself. However, once they looked online for how much rope would cost them, they decided that it was far too expensive at 12 British pounds plus shipping. A knife would have to do. Scarlett had one already that looked like the same kind of knife that Sweeney Todd used. But there was another snag.

[00:13:31] They weren't able to get this boy to meet them at the park. This boy simply blocked them, probably because their name was The Come Lord. That's when they decided that it would just be easier to kill Brianna. She was smaller and much more willing to meet up, especially if she thought that it meant spending time with a friend. Eddie agreed, telling Scarlett, yeah, it'll be easier, and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl. Again, referring to Brianna as it.

[00:14:00] But completely dehumanizing her. Scarlett made plans to meet up with Brianna in Colcheth, where the two could hang out. But Brianna, for reasons that she didn't fully explain, backed out at the last minute. She had no way of knowing that this seemingly insignificant change in plans, it would give her a brief, fleeting reprieve from what was waiting for her just around the corner. But Scarlett was not giving up.

[00:14:28] She had already set her sights on Brianna. And on February 11th, she tried again. This time with a plan so chilling, it would change everything. It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors. Hang on, I'll be back before you know it. I've always had a really tough time working from home. When your place to relax is the same place you're supposed to be productive, it can be really hard to switch between those two modes.

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[00:16:26] Ready to invest in your mental wealth? Check out Magic Mind and give your brain the support it deserves. Shipped internationally to over 65 countries. Just use my link, magicmind.com slash serialnapperjan to get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle today. Now back to our story. Earlier that morning, Brianna received a text message from Scarlett.

[00:16:54] It seemed harmless enough. An invitation to meet up at the Colcheth Library just after 1.30 p.m. Scarlett was very clear in her instructions. Brianna should take the bus. She should buy a child's single ticket and then meet her there. But Scarlett wasn't just giving directions. She was guiding Brianna to a place that she would never return from. For Brianna, the day began like any other. She texted her mom, letting her know that she had locked the dogs away

[00:17:24] and she was about to leave now to go hang out with Scarlett. She walked to the bus stop, taking the long route, even though a closer stop was just a few hundred meters away from her home. But Scarlett had told her to use the Birchwood train station stop, so that's where she went. It was a 25-minute walk. Brianna, who had always been a shy, anxious child, felt the weight of her nerves. As she got on the bus, she sent her mom a quick text that said,

[00:17:52] I'm on the bus by myself. I'm scared. Her mom, trying to reassure her daughter, replied, That's well good. It was a simple exchange, one that would never reach Brianna, who would never make it back home again. The bus driver remembered Brianna. She boarded, looking timid. She was very quiet and looked kind of like she just wanted to disappear into the background. But the bus ride would take her far from her comfort zone, straight into a trap.

[00:18:22] As Brianna headed towards her destination, Scarlett Jenkinson was already preparing for the meeting. By the time that Brianna stepped off that bus and into the unknown, she and Eddie were already waiting. What followed in the next few hours would expose a web of deceit, betrayal, and violence that no one saw coming. It was 1.53pm when Brianna stepped off the bus in front of the library where she met Scarlett and Eddie. This was the very first time

[00:18:51] that she had ever met Eddie in person, and they barely spoke a word to one another. The group walked past the Sainsbury supermarket. Before Brianna had arrived, Scarlett and Eddie had stopped there to buy bottles of Dr. Pepper and Coca-Cola, which later proved to be a crucial detail. DNA left on these bottles would eventually tie them to the crime scene, but more on that later. As the group moved past the supermarket and crossed Gleeblend Road,

[00:19:21] it was 2.02pm. They were heading towards Linear Park. The park was busy, full of dog walkers and families enjoying the lovely afternoon. There was a family playing hide-and-seek who saw them passing by without any inkling of the violence that was about to unfold. Brianna was surrounded by people, but she was walking into a trap. Scarlett had promised Brianna that they were going to be picking up and then taking drugs in the park.

[00:19:50] But, of course, it was all a lie. It was just a plot to get Brianna to the park. Scarlett wasn't in contact with any drug dealer. Instead, she was on her phone texting herself, fabricating a story to manipulate Brianna further into trusting her. But Brianna began to get suspicious. She even texted one of her other friends that Scarlett was kind of acting weird and it seemed like she was just pretending to have a drug dealer on the phone.

[00:20:19] And it was true. Scarlett had set up a fake Snapchat account and she pretended to be messaging a fake drug dealer who she called Nathan. She sent him messages that said, We are here now and come and meet us. It was just after 3pm when the unthinkable happened. In a secluded corner of Linear Park, Brianna's life was brutally cut short by two people she thought she could trust. Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.

[00:20:49] Armed with a blade that Eddie had bought while on holiday, this quiet afternoon turned into a nightmare. In a merciless, frenzied attack, Brianna was stabbed over 28 times. Her attackers focused their violence on her head, her neck, and her chest. At 3.06pm, Brianna's phone sent a message to Scarlett saying, Girl, where are you? But of course it wasn't Brianna who typed those words, no. It was Scarlett herself

[00:21:18] attempting to cover her tracks, to fabricate an alibi, to make it appear that, at that point, Brianna was still alive. As Brianna's blood pooled on the grass underneath her body, Scarlett and Eddie had already made their escape. They weren't concerned with the horror that they had just unleashed. They had more to hide. They discarded Brianna's phone in a drain just steps from Scarlett's home. At 3.13pm,

[00:21:47] dog walkers found Brianna's lifeless, bloody body. At first, they thought it was a blow-up doll. She was left alone, abandoned, and far too young to have met such a violent end. Paramedics arrived shortly after, but it was far too late. Brianna was already gone. Despite their best efforts to revive her, the damage had been done and she was pronounced dead just after 4pm. A huge police investigation was launched, but as detectives

[00:22:16] scrambled to piece together the evidence, Scarlett and Eddie played their parts. They feigned ignorance, pretending to know nothing and offering nothing. Scarlett quickly concocted a story. She claimed that Brianna had ditched them in the park and left with a man from Manchester. She'd carried on this lie, pretending to be a friend in mourning, even posting a tribute to Brianna online that said, Brianna was one of the best people I ever met

[00:22:46] and such an amazing friend. It's so fucking sickening what got done to her. Her killers, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, were confident that they could outsmart the police, even referring to local authorities as shit. They thought that they were untouchable, that they had carried out the perfect murder. But the truth has a way of catching up and just over 24 hours after the crime, their arrogance would cost them everything. Brianna's mother knew that her daughter

[00:23:15] was meeting up with Scarlett that afternoon, but what she didn't know, what no one could have known, was that it would be the last time she would ever see her daughter alive. Once she told the police that Brianna was last seen on her way to meet Scarlett, the case unfolded very quickly. They didn't even really try to hide what they had done. CCTV captured Scarlett and Eddie grabbing those bottles of Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper from Sainsbury. These bottles would later be recovered from the crime scene

[00:23:44] and their DNA was found on these bottles, placing them at the scene of the murder. And it didn't stop there. A raid on Eddie Ratcliffe's home uncovered more evidence, more damning proof that would tie them to the murder. The arrogance that they had shown just hours earlier was now replaced with cold, hard reality. In Eddie's bedroom, the murder weapon was found, a knife that he had picked up while he was on vacation in Bavaria, and it was covered in Brianna's blood,

[00:24:14] the same blood that had stained his clothes, the same clothes he had worn as he viciously took Brianna's life. In Scarlett's room, police found a handwritten note that fully detailed her plan to kill Brianna, and the way that it was written was nearly identical to the way that it actually played out. The note said, Saturday, 11th of February, 2023, victim, Brianna Jai, meet Eddie at Wooden Posts at 1 p.m., walk down to library, bus stop,

[00:24:45] wait until Brianna gets off the bus, and then the three of us walk to Linear Park, go to the pipe slash tunnel area. I say code word to Eddie, he stabs her in the back as I stab her in the stomach. Eddie drags the body into the area, we both cover up the area with logs, etc. Eddie and Scarlett would be arrested for the murder of Brianna Gay. In the wake of her tragic death, the media coverage that followed revealed deep divisions. The Times,

[00:25:15] in its initial reporting, referred to Brianna as a teenage girl, an acknowledgement of her identity. But then later, the paper edited its story, changing the language to refer to Brianna by her male birth name, adding that she had been, living as a girl for several months. For some, it felt like an erasure of Brianna's identity, a subtle but harmful denial of who she actually was in life. And the controversy, it didn't stop there.

[00:25:43] Over at the Telegraph, former police officer Harry Miller, who had been very vocal in his opposition to trans rights, he was interviewed on the topic of Brianna's murder. Miller made a statement that would ignite further outrage. He argued that if Brianna's killing wasn't categorized as a hate crime, it, quote, has to be categorized as the tragic murder of a young male. For many, this was a stark example of the dangers of dismissing Brianna's identity

[00:26:12] and reducing her to her male birth name, her dead name, naming a dead girl by her dead name. It's truly an insult to the beautiful person that she was. After being caught, both Scarlett and Eddie tried to place blame on the other and they told a whole bunch of lies to the police. Eddie said that Scarlett had stabbed Brianna while he was turned around urinating on a tree, but his clothing had blood spatter on him that indicated that he was actually

[00:26:41] really close to her body while she was being killed. Scarlett said that it was Eddie who had killed Brianna. She had nothing to do with the actual murder. And in fact, there was no blood found on her clothing. However, it's believed that's because she washed them. She was just a little bit smarter than Eddie, the tiniest bit. To prosecutors, it didn't really matter who specifically had done the stabbing. Both had clearly participated in the events that led to Brianna's murder.

[00:27:11] At Eddie's trial, the judge acknowledged that his social skills were, quote, not as developed as most people of your age. She understood that he might have faced challenges in relating to others, but there was no escaping the fact that autism in this case, it couldn't be used as an excuse for the horror that he had committed. As the trial progressed, Eddie's behavior took another twist. After he was charged with Brianna's murder, he stopped speaking altogether.

[00:27:40] He was diagnosed with selective mutism, a condition where someone is physically capable of speaking, but they just choose not to. He spoke only to his mother, retreating into a shell that would become his only form of communication throughout the early stages of the trial. For months, the trial was delayed as his legal team struggled to take instructions from him. Their attempts to engage him in conversation was thwarted by his silence.

[00:28:09] As for Scarlett, an initial psychiatric assessment suggested that she had traits of autism and ADHD, but the psychiatrist changed his diagnosis post-conviction, saying that she had a severe form of conduct as social disorder, one of the features of which is having no empathy. During trial, it would come out that this was not even the first time that Scarlett had tried to kill Brianna. Messages revealed that she had tried once before

[00:28:39] by trying to overdose her with red ibuprofen pills. Messages to Eddie said, You know that girl I mentioned, Brianna? I'm still trying to kill her and the easiest way is pill overdose, please. People already know she is depressed and shit, so nobody would get sus, but for some reason she has a high tolerance. Like, I gave her some today that should have been enough to kill her. Her mother confirmed that Brianna was very sick around the time that these messages were sent and had actually

[00:29:08] been vomiting what she believed were grapes, but in fact it was probably more likely those red pills. This was not a difficult case to prosecute. The evidence was in the sadistic messages that were exchanged between the two killers, the bloody knife and clothing found in Eddie's room, and Scarlett's sick and twisted violent fantasies. After only four hours of deliberations, both Scarlett and Eddie were found guilty of murder.

[00:29:37] The judge's final conclusion in this case was chilling. The primary motive, she said, was Scarlett Jenkinson's deep desire to kill. For Eddie Ratcliffe, his actions were partly driven by a violent, transphobic hatred towards Brianna. Both were sentenced to long terms in prison, Scarlett to at least 22 years and Eddie to 20. The judge made it very clear that they may never be released, not until they are safe to be around

[00:30:07] the public again, which may be never. At just 16, she was still discovering who she would become, who she should have been, but in the brief years that she had lived, Brianna left an undeniable impact. Through the voices of those who loved her, through the efforts of her mother and family, Brianna's story is one of defiance, against hate, against cruelty, and against the tragedy of what might have been.

[00:30:37] That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube, so go check it out. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. I'm also on Patreon. If you'd like to get your Serial Napper episodes early and ad-free, hop on over and check out the details at

[00:31:06] patreon.com slash Serial Napper. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye.