Safeguarding review into Brianna Ghey's murderer finds she didn't show killer behaviour

A child safeguarding practice review has found the girl who stabbed Brianna Ghey to death in Warrington, didn't show signs she could become a murderer.

The outcome of a safeguarding review's been released, looking at Scarlett Jenkinson's history. Jenkinson was 15-years-old when she and Eddie Ratcliffe, who was also 15, killed Brianna in Culcheth Linear park last year.

The 20 page review has been published by Warrington Safeguarding Partnerships.

The approach focussed on why those involved acted as they did at the time, aiming to identify any systems issues which affected this case, which may impact in future on other children in Warrington.

The review states that Scarlett was known to have some difficulties with peer relationships, including giving a cannabis edible to another child without them knowing. It does go on to say that this behaviour "was at best unkind, or worse a deliberate attempt to give someone what could be a frightening experience." and that it was not at a level "which could reasonably be expected to make practitioners suspect that Scarlett would go on to commit murder."

It quotes: "The death of Brianna was tragic and shocking. Whilst Scarlett had some vulnerabilities, before the murder she did not stand out from other children. Practitioners who knew her before then were not aware of anything that would have made them think that she was a serious risk to others. They did not know of Scarlett’s fascination with violent acts. They saw no reason to be concerned about any contact with Brianna that they knew about."

The individual agency reports have made single agency recommendations. Warrington Safeguarding Children Partnership says they have has accepted these and will ensure their implementation is monitored.

To address the multi-agency learning, this CSPR identified that WSP should:

• seek evidence from Warrington Borough Council that they have taken into account the learning from this CSPR when undertaking the evaluation of the local “Managed Moves” guidance planned for September 2024.
• agree what impact information it requires from relevant stakeholders about Managed Moves, as part of its safeguarding performance monitoring framework.
• make recommendations to the Department of Education about what changes may be beneficial in the statutory guidance for Managed Moves, and that this should explicitly recognise the benefits of multi-agency involvement in the planning of them and that this should apply to all vulnerable children not just those who have a social worker.
• identify how best to promote local initiatives to support parents, school communities and practitioners working with children to safeguard children when they are online. These need to include support for the most vulnerable groups of parents and children, especially those children who are not in school.
• seek evidence from the police that they have addressed their learning from this review about the need to make home visits to children who are suspected of administering a noxious substance (aka spiking) or other serious drugs offences.
• seek assurance from each agency involved in this review that single agency learning points have been identified and action has been/or is being taken to address and disseminate them.

Eddie Ratcliffe resided in Wigan, and therefore isn’t currently part of Warrington's local jurisdiction for review.

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