One of Brianna Ghey's killers is to appeal his 20 year jail sentence

A boy who carried out the "sadistic" murder of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey wants to appeal against his sentence, officials have confirmed.

Eddie Ratcliffe and his accomplice, Scarlett Jenkinson, both 16, were jailed for life last month and ordered to serve 20 years and 22 years respectively before parole for the killing.

A spokeswoman for the Judicial Communications Office said Ratcliffe had requested permission to appeal against his sentence.

Any decision on granting the appeal will be taken by a senior judge.

Jailing both last month after a five-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, Mrs Justice Yip said the "exceptionally brutal" murder had elements of sadism by Jenkinson and transphobic hate on the part of Ratcliffe.

Both were 15 when they carried out the "disturbing" plan to murder Brianna, 16, in a "frenzied and ferocious" attack with a hunting knife.

Anxious and vulnerable, unsuspecting Brianna was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back after being lured to Linear Park in Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11 last year.

Jenkinson, whose parents are teachers and lived close to the park in Culcheth, had been asked to leave her school, Culcheth High, for giving cannabis-laced sweets to another pupil, and joined Brianna's school, Birchwood High, in October 2022 and quickly became "obsessed" with her.

Along with Ratcliffe, from Leigh, whose mother is a skiing instructor and whose father ran his own businesses, they drew up a "kill list" of four other youths they wanted to harm until Brianna had the "misfortune" to be befriended by Jenkinson.

Brianna's parents said the pair should never be released from prison.

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