Brianna Ghey murder: How two teenagers went from GCSE students to cold-blooded killers

It was the day after Brianna Ghey was discovered - having been brutally murdered in a public park - that the net began to close on her killers. Brianna’s mum Esther knew her 16-year-old daughter had been planning to meet with a girl she believed was her friend the afternoon she was killed.

As the police were given the girl's name, the investigation began to gather pace. Further enquiries led them to the boy the pair had also spent time with in Culcheth Linear Park that day.

Within hours, police had raided both of their homes and they had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Sinister messages and plots which they had shared with each other for months, which they later dismissed in court as 'fantasy', became very real when the police came calling.

READ MORE: Brianna Ghey's parents fight back tears after two teenagers found guilty of her murder

READ MORE: The 'fearless' teenager who dared to be different... and the extraordinary outpouring of grief in the wake of her murder

Both of the teenagers, who have since been known as Girl X and Boy Y, due to reporting restrictions imposed because of their age, were unknown to the police before Brianna was brutally stabbed 28 times on Saturday, February 11. The pair have been detained ever since.

Now, having been found guilty of murder, they will remain incarcerated for years to come. The story of how they went from being 'intelligent' young teenagers, with potentially bright futures ahead of them, to cold-blooded killers, is barely believable.

"They're both really intelligent kids, and you look at their backgrounds, they are quite high functioning," said Detective Chief Superintendent Mike Evans, the officer who led Cheshire Police's investigation into Brianna's killing. "I