- Brave mum Esther Ghey, 37, has vowed to not let her daughter’s death be in vain
The mother of a murdered transgender teenager has vowed to ‘create a lasting legacy for Brianna’ and that she refuses to ‘harbour hate’ for her killers.
Brianna Ghey was brutally killed in a premeditated murder by fellow schoolmates who she thought were her friends.
Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, then 15 years old, lured the 16-year-old to a park in Warrington, Cheshire, and stabbed her to death.
Ratcliffe was partly motivated by transphobia while Jenkinson was obsessed with torture and death on the dark web as well as serial killers.
But Brianna’s mother, Esther Ghey, 37, has vowed to not let her daughter’s death be in vain.
Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, has vowed not to harbour hate
Brianna Ghey was a transgender teenager who was murdered in a park in Warrington, Cheshire
Ms Ghey attends a vigil in Golden Square, Warrington, to mark the one year anniversary of her daughter’s murder
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
Hundreds of people attending a vigil for Brianna, with many dressed in pink which was Brianna’s favourite colour
‘The worst possible thing has happened to our family,’ she told The Times, ‘and for me, it can’t be for nothing.
‘I’ve got to make something good come out of this and create a lasting legacy for Brianna.’
Mrs Ghey who worked as a food technologist has since turned into a campaigner to introduce mindfulness into schools across the UK, a campaign in which she has raised over £95,000 so far, and she also wants to reform the internet.
She said: ‘This isn’t something I would ever imagined myself doing.
‘I don’t feel comfortable talking to the press.
‘But I want fundamental change. I have another daughter and I want to make society a better place for my grandchildren – for all our grandchildren.’
She set up Peace In Mind, a charity to introduce mindfulness into primary school classes.
As a practitioner of mindfulness over the past eight years, she credits it for giving her the resilience and empathy to cope with the loss of her daughter.
‘Timid’ Brianna’s body was found face-down in the mud in a Cheshire village on February 11
Brianna Ghey, 16, was lured to the park by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time
The case of Brianna’s murder made headlines and the case was so extreme that the judge lifted reported restrictions to name her killers.
But her mother remained dignified throughout the trial and instead of calling for revenge, in December she called for compassion for the families of the murderers.
Mrs Ghey continued: ‘I refuse to harbour hate.
‘You can let something like this destroy you or you can get back up on your feet and push forward.’
She added: ‘I think there are various stages of closure.
‘Watching Brianna’s killers being sentenced was one point of closure.
‘Seeing mindfulness teachers in schools would be another.
‘You can’t cover up the terrible loss at the centre of your life, not would you want to.
‘Instead, you try to build a new life around that huge vacuum.’
