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A girl accused of murdering Brianna Ghey has told a jury she was walking away from the teen when she was stabbed and only saw the attack because she “heard a noise like someone screaming”.
Manchester Crown Court has heard Brianna was stabbed in a park in Culcheth, Cheshire, in February.
A 16-year-old, identified for legal reasons as girl X, became upset as she said she saw her co-accused, identified as boy Y, attacking Brianna.
Girl X and boy Y have denied murder.
The pair, who were aged 15 at the time of the attack, allegedly lured Brianna, who was transgender, to Linear Park in Culcheth, near Warrington, on the afternoon of 11 February before she was stabbed her 28 times.
Warning: Some readers might find the following report distressing
The court has previously been shown what the prosecution said was a handwritten “murder plan” found in girl X’s bedroom.
It has also seen text messages sent between her and boy Y, which allegedly showed the plan to lure Brianna to the park and kill her.
Notes were also made on serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez and Harold Shipman in a notebook and jurors have heard the pair had a fixation with torture, violence and death, with girl X describing herself as a “satanist”.
Giving evidence, Girl X wiped away a tear as she denied murder and told the court that any talk of harming Brianna had been just “a fantasy”.
She said she thought she, boy Y and Brianna were going to the park to “hang out” and the three of them had stopped near a bench, but she had become a bit bored and walked away to stretch her legs.
Richard Pratt KC, defending girl X, said: “Did something attract your attention?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“When I walked off, I heard a noise like someone screaming and that’s when I turned around.”
‘Really upset’
Asked what she then saw, she said she “saw boy Y stabbing Brianna”, adding that he had done so “around five times”.
“I saw her fall and land face down on the floor,” she said.
“I saw him stood next to her, leaning over, looking down at her.”
She said the attack left her “in shock” and agreed it was not what she expected or wanted to happen.
She added that if she had tried to “step in”, boy Y “could easily have overpowered” her.
She said that after the attack, she “walked over to see whether I could see her breathing”, but she could not and when she saw boy Y run off, she “panicked” and also fled.
Judge Mrs Justice Yip asked girl X if she was alright as she appeared to wipe tears away with the sleeves of her cardigan, before being handed a tissue by her intermediary.
The court heard that the following day, she told her mother, and then the police, that Brianna had been with her but left to meet someone from Manchester.
Asked why she did not tell the truth, she said had been “scared because obviously I knew how bad it would look, just based off of text messages, so I was defending myself as well as boy Y at the time”.
She said she sent messages via Snapchat to Brianna after her death because she started to get “really paranoid”.
Finishing his questioning, Mr Pratt asked her how she felt about the fact Brianna had died.
“I do feel really upset about it,” she replied.
‘Genius level’
The court has previously heard from boy Y, who denied attacking Brianna with a hunting knife.
Richard Littler KC, defending boy Y, said girl X had told Brianna to buy a single ticket, not a return, when she travelled to meet the pair on the day she died.
He told the court that boy Y had never met Brianna before that day and, addressing girl X, he said: “It was your idea to kill Brianna. It was your idea to stab her.”
“There was no intent,” she replied.
“Put aside intent. It was your idea?” he said
“Yeah,” she replied.
Girl X also admitted she had “lured” Brianna to the park and admitted lying to her mother, boyfriend and police about what had happened.
Mr Littler also cited a notebook found at girl X’s house of her describing boy Y as being both “very, very smart, genius level” and a “sociopath”, who lacked emotion, was socially awkward and had only three followers on Instagram.
Girl X denied the suggestion she tried to control or manipulate boy Y.
“He did not have many friends did he? But he had you as a friend?” Mr Littler said.
“Yes,” she replied.
The trial continues.
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