Esther Ghey has revealed why she met the mother of twisted teen killer Scarlett Jenkinson in an ’emotional’ face to face meeting as the two mothers united in grief.
The mother of murdered schoolgirl Brianna Ghey today reveals she has held a ‘very emotional’ meeting with the family of one of the teenage killers at which they felt ‘a bit of a connection’ over the terrible trauma they have both gone through.
Esther Ghey, who has won praise for her determination that some good should come from the brutal murder of her transgender daughter, said she and Scarlett Jenkinson’s mother’s had discussed ‘the challenges of parenting’.
She showed a tremendous amount of empathy as she said that what Jenkinson’s family had gone through was ‘terrible’ because ‘they haven’t only lost a child, but they’ve also got to live with what’s happened now for the rest of their life’.
Ms Ghey said that ‘both of us are mothers who are trying to navigate something that nobody should ever have gone through’.
Esther Ghey (pictured) has revealed an ’emotional’ connection with killer teen Scarlett Jenkinson’s mother as she pledged to use her grief to ‘help people like Brianna’
Brianna Ghey, 16, was stabbed 28 times on February 11 last year when she was lured to a park by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe
Jenkinson, who was obsessed with serial killers, began watching videos of real-life torture and killing on the dark web. She plotted to kill Brianna with Ratcliffe
Jenkinson aged 11 with her parents Brian Jenkinson and Emma Sutton. Ms Ghey said she wanted to meet with Jenkinson’s mother to know how she is feeling
Ms Ghey also revealed that her daughter ‘did struggle with her mental health’ and that she was trying to ‘see what I can do to help people that were like Brianna’ as she campaigns for better mental health support in schools.
Asked how she could meet Jenkinson’s mother without feeling ‘anger and rage’, she said she didn’t want to ‘hide away at home virtually crippled with hate’.
Instead she was determined to ‘take a more positive approach and actually make something good’ out of an ‘absolutely horrific situation’.
Ms Ghey said: ‘I genuinely don’t feel any of those towards Scarlett’s parents and I actually don’t feel that towards Scarlett either, because I know that all of these emotions and feelings like hate is only going to impact me.
‘I don’t want to be a victim, I don’t want this to impact the rest of my life and to stop me from progressing and to stop me from being productive and hopefully making a change in society as well.
‘I think that things happen and you can either use them as a lesson and where can we go from here or they can break you and I won’t be broken.’
The extraordinary encounter comes after Ms Ghey met Rishi Sunak to press him on her campaign for mobile phone companies to do more to prevent teenagers from being able to access harmful content and restrict social media to over-16s.
She has also been pushing for better mental health support in schools following last month’s jailing of torture-obsessed Jenkinson and her former schoolfriend, Eddie Ratcliffe, in the hope of turning young people away from unhappiness and hate.
Displaying an incredible lack of bitterness, Ms Ghey said she hoped to work with Jenkinson’s mother – a former teacher who has herself praised the ‘overwhelming compassion’ shown by Brianna’s mother since the killing – to support both campaigns.
In February last year Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, both then 15, used their phones to hatch a plan to lure Brianna to a park in Cheshire before hacking her to death in a ‘frenzied’ attack.
Jenkinson, whose mother Emma Sutton, 49, is a former teacher at a Catholic high school, had downloaded a special browser on to her device to watch real-life torture and murder on the dark web.
Following the pair’s conviction for murder last December, Ms Ghey said she had ‘a lot of sympathy for their parents because they’ve had to sit there and listen to what their children have done’.
Brianna Ghey, 16, was found with fatal wounds in a park near Warrington, Cheshire, in February 2023. She had been lured there by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time
Esther Ghey, who has won praise for her determination that some good should come from the brutal murder of her transgender daughter, said she and Scarlett Jenkinson’s mother’s had discussed ‘the challenges of parenting’
Both Jenkinson and Ratcliffe (pictured) were sentenced earlier last month. Jenkinson will serve a minimum of 22 years, while Ratcliffe will serve a minimum of 20 years
After Jenkinson was given a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years behind bars, her family said what she had done was ‘beyond their worst nightmares’ and they felt ‘truly sorry’ for her actions.
Expressing their ‘sincere thanks to Esther Ghey for her incredible selflessness and empathy towards our family,’ they added: ‘Her compassion is overwhelming and we are forever grateful.’
Now Ms Ghey has revealed she had a ‘very emotional’ private meeting with Jenkinson’s mother and one of her uncles last week.
‘I wanted to sit down with Scarlett’s family to find out how the last year had affected them,’ she said afterwards.
‘It was a positive and respectful meeting which allowed us to initially get to know each other. Although I don’t want to go into any detail, we discussed family and the challenges of parenting.
‘As a former teacher, Scarlett’s mum was really interested in the two Peace in Mind campaigns to get mindfulness training into schools through Mindfulness in Schools Project and better child safeguarding for social media and mobile phones.
‘She agreed that things need to change, so we are looking at ways in which she can support both campaigns. I would welcome the chance of working with her moving forwards.
‘I didn’t feel any anger or resentment towards Scarlett’s mum, in fact it showed that tragedies have far-reaching ripples.
‘It has been a tough year, but I have been maintaining my mindfulness which I believe has helped with resilience, compassion and empathy. Meeting Scarlett’s mum has reminded me how important that is to me.’
Ms Ghey, 37, said she had wanted to ‘understand her perspective and to see what they’re going through as a family now as well’.
She said agreeing to meet the mother of her killer daughter’s victim had shown ‘a great deal of bravery on [Jenkinson’s mother’s] part as well’.
She added: ‘It was emotional. I’m really glad that we had the meeting. Both Scarlett’s mum and uncle are very nice people, they are just normal people, and I think that what has happened has impacted their family massively just the same it has impacted mine.
Ms Ghey also revealed that her daughter ‘did struggle with her mental health’ and that she was trying to ‘see what I can do to help people that were like Brianna’ as she campaigns for better mental health support in schools
Hundreds of people attending a vigil for Brianna, with many dressed in pink which was Brianna’s favourite colour, on February 11, 2024
Scarlett Jenkinson joined with Eddie Ratcliffe to murder transgender Brianna in February 2023
Ms Ghey said that as ‘both of us are mothers who are trying to navigate something that nobody should ever have gone through’
Tributes left during a vigil include a piece of artwork of Brianna, some flowers, and a teddy as one mourner is seen lighting a candle in her memory
‘We spoke about very personal things and she was very open with me and so respectful as well.’
Ms Ghey said there was nothing Jenkinson’s mother could have said to help her as ‘any kind of healing and help comes from within’, but she added that the meeting did ‘help in a way’ and gives her hope.
And for her own part, Ms Ghey said the encounter – coupled with the ‘kindness’ she has been shown by the nation at large – showed there was ‘hope’ for ‘unity’ and ‘for people to be better to one another as well’.
She also called for more ‘drastic’ action to curb online hate after being told that police could not trace a troll who targeted her due to ‘privacy laws’.
She has spoken to Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan as well as Rishi Sunak about her concerns that the Government’s new Online Safety Act does not go far enough to protect children.
She revealed how police were unable to take action over a cruel message she was sent during last year’s trial of the killers of her 16-year-old daughter, who was transgender – despite the new law already having been given Royal Assent.
Ms Ghey said she had ‘lots of filters’ on Facebook as ‘people can send horrible things’, but added: ‘Every now and again, some slip through.’ And one of them was: ‘Your son died because of you. You are a failure.’
She said as it was during the trial, rather than delete the message and block the troll, she reported the transphobic message to police. ‘Due to privacy laws, they could not get the information of this person. This is when the Online Safety Act was in place.’
Ms Ghey said she had raised the incident at her video meeting earlier this month with Ms Donelan and the Prime Minister to illustrate her concern the Act doesn’t go far enough ‘because I don’t know how it’s going to protect children’.
Brianna’s body was found face-down in the mud in a Cheshire village on February 11, 2023
Ms Ghey attends a vigil on February 11, 2024, in Golden Square, Warrington, to mark the one year anniversary of her daughter’s murder
‘I think that a more drastic action needs to happen,’ she added.
The Government says the Online Safety Act is ‘world-leading’ legislation which will make the internet a safer place for children by enabling fines running into billions of pounds to be levied on tech companies which don’t tackle harmful content.
But last month Ms Ghey told the Today programme: ‘I’m all for free speech, but some of the comments I’ve seen on social media posts and some of the articles… they’re just hateful comments.’
She said the new law ‘is not going to protect children and young people from seeing that kind of horrible content because I don’t think that would be deemed as harmful’.
This comes after it emerged last week that ‘high-achiever’ Ratcliffe is seeking permission to appeal the sentence of life with a minimum of 20 years which he was given last month.
It came after his father Kyle, 36, was last month himself jailed for 15 months after he admitted exposing himself while driving past two ‘violated’ girls.
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