Brianna Ghey: Mother Esther Ghey predicted death of trans daughter who was stabbed 28 times in a park

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Brianna Ghey has revealed she predicted her daughter would be killed three months before she died.

Esther Ghey, 38, was so worried about the 16-year-old’s obsessive internet use that she wrote to a support worker: “I have lost control. I don’t know what she’s doing online. I am really concerned that I will arrive home from work one day and Brianna will be raped or murdered.”

Three months later transgender Brianna, who was also being encouraged to self-harm and starve herself on social media, was dead.

Ms Ghey’s prediction is revealed in her new book, Under A Pink Sky, which charts her own difficult teenage years, Brianna’s mental health struggles and murder, and her subsequent campaign for tighter controls on social media and improved safety for children online.

Despite Ms Ghey’s fears, Brianna – who had thousands of followers on TikTok – was not attacked or killed by a stranger she met on the internet.

Instead, it was a school friend, Scarlett Jenkinson, then 15, who lured her to a park in Culcheth village, not far from her hometown of Warrington, and along with Eddie Ratcliffe, also 15, stabbed her 28 times.

Ms Ghey describes how she screamed “I knew this was going to happen” when police officers arrived at her home to tell her Brianna’s body had been found.

She writes: “That’s all I could say. It felt like it was all I had been saying, yelling, screaming, pleading for months – something terrible is going to happen.”

But she also admits that of all the “horrible scenarios I feared for Brianna, being stabbed by a friend was not one of them”.

Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were jailed for 22 and 20 years respectively after being convicted of murder at Manchester Crown Court in February last year.

In her book, Ms Ghey reveals how, as a rebellious teenager, she suffered from body dysmorphia, started drinking alcohol, taking drugs and skipping school.

She eventually overcame her drug addiction, completed a degree and secured her dream job as a food product developer.

But it was not drugs that Brianna struggled with. Instead, Ms Ghey tells how the COVID lockdowns led her daughter to become addicted to social media.

She says her transition from Brett to Brianna aged 14 was perhaps the “easiest” thing, compared to the struggle to get her diagnosed with autism and to secure mental health support when she started struggling at school, self-harming and suffering from anorexia.

Brianna began engaging in “dangerous” interactions with strangers online in the months before her death.

“She was lonely and sad, and the pressure of keeping up her TikTok persona was exhausting,” Ms Ghey writes.

“I think her phone, the place that she had once gone to for community, comfort and affirmation, was crippling her.”

Over the past two years, through her Peace and Mind campaign, Ms Ghey has been calling for better protections for children online.

Her work has also included co-hosting a podcast series, Parents Vs. The Internet.

Under A Pink Sky tells the remarkable story of how Ms Ghey forgave Brianna’s killers and is determined for “something good” to come from her tragic death.

Under A Pink Sky is available from Thursday

Lifeline: 13 11 14.

Young people seeking support can phone beyondblue on 1300 22 4636 or go to headspace.org.au.