The murder of Brianna Ghey: How an idyllic country park became the unlikely setting for one of the most brutal and chilling killings of recent times

It was a cool but pleasant February afternoon as a family played hide and seek in the park. John Dagger, his partner and their three children were making the most of their weekend in the calm, tranquil surroundings of Culcheth Linear Park near Warrington.

They were briefly distracted from the fun and games by three teenagers within the greenery. One, a young woman, appeared out of place.

She wasn’t wearing the practical clothes that everyone else in the park was, such as thick coats and walking boots. Dressed in a white fluffy jacket and white knee high socks, she stood out a mile among the dog walkers and others who were out enjoying some fresh air.

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One of them - a dog walker who used the park most days - had no idea that she would soon bear witness to the aftermath of one of the most shocking and extraordinary killings in recent times. At first, Kathryn Vize, who was out walking her two dogs with her husband Andrew, thought she’d seen a man bending over and tending to his dog.

She later realised what she’d actually witnessed was the last moments of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey’s life. That seemingly idyllic Saturday afternoon in the park was the unlikely venue for the culmination of a barely believable plot, in which two 15-year-old schoolchildren conspired to plan the brutal murder of another child.

The subsequent investigation revealed how a girl, who had once considered Brianna to be a friend of hers, prepared the murder in appalling detail, even putting pen to paper to plan the killing. Much of that handwritten plan, later discovered by police