11 December 2023 , 16:03
1013
0
A teenage girl accused of murdering Brianna Ghey claims she started "making up messages" to her in order to cover herself - but says it was unrelated and that she "knew how bad it would look".
The teen, who can be named only as Girl X due to her age, is one of two young people standing trial for the 16-year-old's murder at Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, Cheshire, in February this year. During Monday's hearing at the trial at Manchester crown court, the girl was asked about messages she had sent to Brianna the day after the stabbing, where she had asked ‘girl you ok?’ as ‘some teenager’ had been killed in the park.
The defendant said: “I started to get really paranoid and realised how bad it was going to look. I started making up messages to Brianna to cover myself… I knew it would look really bad on me because of the text messages between me and Boy Y and so I started making messages with Brianna.”
She agreed she was pretending Brianna was still alive. Girl X also agreed she had tried and failed to delete messages she had sent to Brianna. The defendant was asked why she later posted a tribute to Brianna online, and she said she had been ‘upset’ at photos she had seen and added: “I was really upset at what god did (sic) to Brianna so I posted that picture online.”
During Monday's evidence, it was also told how Girl X met Brianna for the first time at the end of the year before. Taking the witness box, she agreed the two had remained friends, but when it was suggested by co-accused Boy Y's barrister, Richard Littler KC, that she had texted her boyfriend saying she had fallen out with Brianna, the girl replied: “I had a couple arguments about her sleeping with grown men.”
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
The two "stopped being mates for a bit", she added. Mr Littler suggested even Girl X’s boyfriend wasn’t even sure Girl X and Brianna were friends.
The defendant denied it was a "big falling out" with Brianna. The day after the stabbing she messaged her boyfriend saying "I f***ed up so badly", the jurors were told.
Girl X added "I do overthinking quite a lot", but denied she was referring to what had happened in the park. She denied a suggestion from Mr Littler she had "done this to Brianna" because she had tried to break up Girl X and her boyfriend.
The defendant agreed it was right she had suggested to Boy Y she wanted to kill two others because of what they had done to her boyfriend, but she denied she actually wanted to kill them. Girl X also admitted she had lied to police in her evidence, saying she “was still trying to defend myself and Boy Y at that point.”
Pressed on why she had lied, she said: “Because I knew how bad it was going to look on me.” She denied had done anything to physically harm Brianna and also denied she wanted Boy Y to harm her.
Girl X and Boy Y are charged with Brianna's murder on February 11 this year and both have denied the charges. The trial continues.