Brianna Ghey: Teenagers appear in court charged with trans schoolgirl’s murder
Two 15-year-olds have appeared in court charged with the murder of Brianna Ghey.
The pair, a boy and a girl, both aged 15, appeared via video link at Liverpool Crown Court, speaking only to confirm their names.
A trial into Brianna’s murder has been set for Monday 10 July at Liverpool Crown Court and is expected to last for around three weeks.
Brianna, a transgender girl from Birchwood in Warrington, was found by members of the public as she lay with fatal stab wounds on a path in Culcheth Linear Park at around 3.13pm on Saturday.
Vigils have been held across the UK and Ireland as the trans community came together to remember the teenager.
Crowds of mourners gathered on Wednesday night outside the Department for Education building in London, City Hall in Belfast, Dalton Square in Lancaster, and on O’Connell Street in Dublin, holding trans pride flags, placards and candles.
At the vigil in London a minute’s silence was held at 7pm.
A sign left outside the Department for Education in London
Graffiti on the wall of the Department for Education
Bouquets of flowers and a sign saying RIP Brianna were left at the door of the building, which was also defaced with graffiti.
The crowd chanted: “When trans rights are under attack, what do you do?
“Stand up, fight back.”
They also chanted: “Say her name – Brianna Ghey.”
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Brianna’s friends ‘sick and in disbelief’
Messages to Brianna were also written on postcards and left outside the building.
One read: “You were too young.”
The other read: “Trans rights are human rights.”
At the end of the vigil, the attendees staged a “die-in”.
They lay on the ground and chanted: “How many of our corpses does it take for you to care?”
In Lancaster there was a more sombre scene, with crowds pictured carrying candles, mourning Brianna’s death.
Members of the public attend a candle-lit vigil at Dalton Square, Lancaster, in memory of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey
The Belfast and Dublin gathering saw people carrying signs saying “rest in power” and placards reading “say her name: Brianna”.
A GoFundMe page set up to help Brianna’s family has passed £88,000 just two days after it was launched.
Mourners gathered on O’Connell Street in Dublin
DCI Adam Waller, who has been the Senior Investigating Officer in the case, said: “I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to the community of Culcheth for their support in relation to the investigation.
“We have been inundated with pieces of information from members of the community wanting to help and assist the enquiry. Many of our officers have been approached to offer their best wishes to us and, especially, to Brianna’s family.
“I know that the family has also been overwhelmed by the messages of support, positivity and the compassion across the country and beyond – and the thoughts of everyone at the Constabulary remains firmly with them.”
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.
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