Brianna Ghey’s killers have been given life sentences for her “brutal, planned and sadistic” murder.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe murdered the 16-year-old in a park in Cheshire in February 2023.
Mrs Justice Yip said Jenkinson was motivated by a “deep desire to kill” while Ratcliffe’s motivation was in part hostility to Brianna’s transgender identity.
She was given 22 years, while Ratcliffe was detained for 20 years.
Both teenagers, who were 15 at the time of the murder and are now 16, could be seen staring ahead towards the judge and showed no visible reaction as they were sentenced.
22 years is the minimum custodial part of the sentence, the rest will be ‘on licence’ so out of prison under set conditions like reporting in at a police station every week. Breach of any of the conditions or breaking any other laws is basically back to prison do not pass go.
So like getting out on parole in the US?
That’s exactly what it is yeah. 22 years (or 20 for the boy) before they’ll be eligible for parole. If they’re deemed to still be a risk to the public then they won’t be released.
The UK doesn’t do life sentences with no eligibility for parole. Every sentence will include eligibility for parole, with the maximum period for eligibility being around 25 years. But obviously there are still plenty of prisoners who don’t get parole and spend their entire life behind bars.
There are a handful of Whole Life Tariffs but they are exceptionally rare (e.g. Lucy Letby) and it used to be that it had to be given by the home secretary but that’s changed since
Letby was also in Cheshire. What are they putting in the cheese?
That’s not entirely true. Full life orders do exist.
That nurse who killed all those babies got one last year, that police officer who kidnapped raped and murdered Sarah Everard has one, Dr Harold Shipman had one, and probably most famously Mira Hindley and Ian Brady had them.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole_life_orders