Brianna Ghey’s murder could not have been foreseen by her school or those of her killers, a coroner has said as she recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. Brianna, 16, was stabbed to death in a “sadistic” and “exceptionally brutal” murder in a Warrington park on 11 February 2023 by Eddie Ratcliffe and Scarlett Jenkinson, who were both 15 at the time. Jenkinson was sentenced to 22 years in prison and Ratcliffe to 20 years, in February this year, for stabbing Brianna with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back. At the inquest into the teenager’s death, which began on Wednesday and lasted three days, Cheshire senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish said the local authorities overseeing the services that encountered Brianna and her killers could not have anticipated her murder. Brianna had been a pupil at Birchwood High School, Warrington, where she was befriended by Jenkinson, who had transferred from Culcheth High School after she “spiked” a younger pupil with cannabis-laced sweets. Following her “managed transfer” from Culcheth, where Ratcliffe was a pupil, within weeks Jenkinson became obsessed by Brianna and began plotting her murder with Ratcliffe. From age 14, Jenkinson had enjoyed watching videos of real killing and torture on the dark web, fantasised about murder and developed an interest in serial killers, her murder trial heard. But her “dark fantasies” were not known to either school or any other adults, their trial heard. The inquest at Warrington coroner’s court examined safeguarding for all three teenagers and how Brianna was brought into contact with Jenkinson. But the hearing was told that despite Jenkinson’s misbehaviour in school, no one could have foreseen she was planning and would go on to murder Brianna. Concluding the inquest, Devonish said: “There was no reason for anyone to suspect the friendship was anything other than genuine. “I found Birchwood High School offered Brianna a high standard of support within a caring environment.” Devonish said there were no visible signs that Brianna was at risk from Jenkinson. She added: “She had been planning Brianna’s murder since late 2022. Eddie Ratcliffe was the only person who knew, other than Scarlett Jenkinson. “I found that the schools could not have reasonably foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe would have plotted and murdered Brianna. “It could not have, on the evidence available at the time, reasonably have been foreseen that Scarlett Jenkinson was mentally unstable so that she would kill.” Both Brianna and Jenkinson had personal issues affecting their schooling. Jenkinson had assaulted another pupil and turned up for class drunk and smelling of cannabis. Brianna had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Esther Ghey, her mother, said her daughter had become “immersed in darkness”, falling behind in schoolwork and spending a lot of time online, garnering thousands of followers on TikTok and YouTube by posting video content. But Ghey said her daughter’s online world was “very toxic” and she was deemed to be at risk of sexual exploitation. Before her murder, concerns had been raised about Brianna’s interactions online but she had refused to let her mother have access to her phone, and her school could not take the device off her either, the hearing was told. Esther Ghey is now campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of social media to children and for greater parental controls to be put in place.