The judge in the Brianna Ghey trial has warned those “tempted to direct vitriol or malice” towards the families of her teenage killers that such action would ignore the “express wishes” of the victim’s grieving mother.
Mrs Justice Yip said on Thursday she would lift the reporting restrictions preventing the pair from being named when they are sentenced on 2 February, saying there was a “strong public interest in full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case”.
The family of the female defendant had already received death threats, the local council told Yip, who presided over the trial of the two 16-year-olds, who were convicted at Manchester crown court this week.
Brianna was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back after being lured to a park in Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of 11 February.
In a written judgment on lifting the restrictions, released on Friday, Yip urged those behind the threats to “question the part they are playing in society in the context of a case in which dark thoughts and hateful messages became enacted in real life”.
The defendants could have been identified upon turning 18, but Yip said continuing the court order granting anonymity until then would “represent a substantial and unreasonable restriction on the freedom of the press”.
She noted that the teenagers – referred to as Girl X and Boy Y throughout the trial – had been repeatedly identified online and that the identities of their families “must already be known within their local communities”.
She acknowledged that revealing the defendants’ identities would cause further “concern and distress” to their parents and siblings, adding: “I am aware that they have already been subject to threats and harassment.”
But she stressed that the purpose of the restrictions was not to protect members of the family of a convicted defendant.
“The distress likely to be caused to them by publication is in reality not significantly greater than it would be if the teenage defendants had just reached their majority, in which case restrictions could not be imposed. I am afraid that I think the risk of the families experiencing further threats and harassment will remain whether the defendants are named now or in 2025,” said Yip.
She praised Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, for showing “remarkable fortitude and humanity” when she stood on the court steps after the verdicts and called for “empathy and compassion” to be extended to the killers’ parents.
The judge said: “Those who have seen the defendants’ parents in court over the last few weeks will recognise their suffering. Anyone who is tempted to direct vitriol or malice towards the defendants’ families would do well to recognise that they would be acting against the express wishes of Brianna’s bereaved mother.”
The killers’ parents were in court for most of the trial, with Brianna’s family watching upstairs from the public gallery.
