Jurors have been shown footage of Brianna Ghey leaving home before she was allegedly murdered by two teenagers.
A doorbell camera captured the 16-year-old, who was transgender, as she left home for the last time on 11 February before she was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in her head, chest, back and neck.
Two 16-year-olds, who can only be identified as girl X and boy Y, are on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of murdering Brianna in Culcheth Linear Park near Warrington in Cheshire on 11 February.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC described Brianna’s “distinctive look” as she left her house with long red hair and glasses, wearing a fluffy white hooded jacket, a short grey tartan skirt and white over-the-knee socks, while carrying a checked shoulder bag.
Image: Brianna Ghey was stabbed 28 times. Pic: Cheshire Police
Brianna can be seen using her phone and the court heard she sent a message to her mother Esther Ghey saying: “I’m leaving to go see [girl X]” and “dogs are locked up”.
CCTV footage shows her walking to the bus stop where she gets on the number 28 on her way to meet girl X and boy Y, who were both 15 at the time.
Driver Kieran Mercer said in a statement read in court there was “something odd about her” and “she was going out of her way not to be seen”.
He described her as “very timid, very quietly spoken and very delicate”, adding: “She just gave the impression she was someone who wanted to be left alone.”
Jurors were shown a picture Brianna sent to her mother of the inside of the bus and a message which said: “I’m on the bus by myself, I’m scared”.
Image: Brianna sent a text to her mother saying ‘I’m scared’ shortly before her death, a court heard
Ms Ghey said in a statement read in court she replied “that’s well good” as “I was really proud of her”, telling jurors in a statement her daughter didn’t go out much because of her anxiety.
“I don’t think she ever saw it because it showed as being delivered but it didn’t turn blue,” she added.
The court heard Brianna was last captured on a doorbell camera with girl X and boy Y heading towards Culcheth Linear Park shortly after 2pm.
Both defendants deny murder and blame each other for her death.
Image: Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther Ghey (L) arriving at Manchester Crown Court earlier this week
Girl X ‘tried to kill Brianna with overdose’
The court heard weeks before Brianna’s death, girl X gave her an overdose of ibuprofen gel tablets, telling boy Y in a message on 23 January “that should have been enough to kill her”.
But girl X said that although Brianna had messaged to say “I feel so bad” and “Oh my god I just threw up and it’s the colour of Fanta”, she “didn’t die”, in messages read out by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC.
The court heard girl X also talked about a potential plan to put toilet cleaner and ibuprofen gel in a McDonalds milkshake, and she claimed to have already killed two people, prompting boy Y to say: “You’re one kill away from being a serial killer.”
Prosecutors have told the jury girl X and boy Y’s messages show the defendants were “preoccupied” with torture, murder and death, but there is no evidence they acted on their words before 23 January.
In a statement read to jurors by junior prosecutor Cheryl Mottram, Brianna’s mother said she remembered one occasion not long before the teenager’s death when her daughter was “really sick”.
She said Brianna appeared to be in “real pain” and was “screaming and crying for me to help her” after she got home from work and went into the kitchen to make tea.
“She was in her bedroom rolling around in agony, holding her stomach,” Ms Ghey said.
“She was writhing around in pain screaming, ‘I think I’m going to die’. It was quite frightening.”
Ms Ghey said she thought Brianna might have appendicitis and when she went to get her phone, her daughter said: “Don’t leave me, don’t leave me.”
She said Brianna was sick all over her bedroom floor, with what appeared to be “grape skins” in the clear liquid, before her condition improved.
Ms Ghey said her daughter “generally stayed in” because of her anxiety but would sometimes go to McDonalds with girl X.
She said Brianna was usually at home by the time she got back from work, adding: “I don’t know how often they spent time together, where they went or what they did.”
Ms Ghey told the jury it was “a blur” after police told her about Brianna’s death.
Only girl X was in court today, with boy Y appearing by video-link from his secure accommodation unit.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Yip told the jury they may notice that boy Y is playing with a fidget or tangle toy, or he may have a crossword book with him, which experts have told her helps him concentrate – and girl X has similar devices.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.
Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment.
A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.
But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.
The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.
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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.
The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.
“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.
“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”
Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.
It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.
“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”
The review will mean:
• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion
• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves
• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth
Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.
“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”
However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.