Brianna Kane's killers face life in prison

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Radcliffe can only hope for release after many years: the two teenagers from Cheshire in northwest England were sentenced to life in prison on Friday. Jenkinson and Radcliffe were 15 when they dragged 16-year-old Briana Key to a park in Warrington, near Manchester, on February 11 last year and stabbed her 28 times. Investigators found stab wounds to the head, neck, chest and back.

Scarlett Jenkinson pleaded guilty in December. “Eddie threw Briana to the ground and stabbed her three or four times, then he panicked and said he didn't want to kill her, so he went ahead and stabbed her multiple times,” prosecutor Deanna Heer told the Mirror. . According to prosecutors, the two teenagers were obsessed with killing each other.

In their first police interview, the two young men initially blamed each other for the gruesome murder.

According to Judge Amanda Yip, Jenkinson had sadistic tendencies. The teenager's transphobic motives were also said to have played a role in the crime. Both of them had been preparing murder plans for a long time, for which they chose Brianna as an easy victim. They are said to have earlier drawn up a “death list” containing the names of the four youths.

After the murder, the perpetrator tried to draw attention away from himself by posting a kind of tribute to the victim on Snapchat. Among other things, Jenkinson described Brianna as “a great friend” and “one of the best people I've ever met.”

The case caused a stir in Britain. Briana Key had thousands of fans on the online service Tiktok, but in real life she was a shy teenager who suffered from depression and rarely left the house.

Passing sentence, Judge Yip said: “You were both involved in a brutal and premeditated murder.” Jenkinson, now 16, and Radcliffe, who is the same age, will not be released until 22 and 20 years respectively. “It will not be decided today how long they will be in prison,” Judge Yip said, warning that the two could remain behind bars forever.