One of the teenagers convicted of the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey has lost his bid to reduce the length of his sentence.
Lawyers for Eddie Ratcliffe, who was 15 at the time of the killing but is now 17, asked for the length of his sentence to be reduced, claiming the judge had failed to take into account his “immaturity”.
Ratcliffe was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years in February this year for Brianna’s murder, alongside co-defendant Scarlett Jenkinson, who received a minimum term of 22 years. Brianna was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife during the fatal attack in Culcheth, near Warrington, in February 2023.
Richard Littler KC, for Ratcliffe, told the Court of Appeal that sentencing judge Mrs Justice Yip had not fully accounted for Ratcliffe’s “poor social skills” and “immaturity”, stating the minimum term was “far to high”.
But the appeal was dismissed by three senior judges dismissed the bid and found that the arguments in favour of reducing Ratcliffe’s sentence were “based on a false premise”.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Lavender and Mr Justice Murray, said in summary of the judgement: “The judge’s choice of a starting point of 20 years for a minimum term was correct, for the reasons that she gave.
“The judge was then entitled to take into account the aggravating factors as identified.”
She added: “The sentence imposed by the judge on the applicant was neither manifestly excessive, nor wrong in principle. The proposed grounds (of appeal) are not arguable.”
Mr Littler said earlier on Thursday that the sentence had been “wrongly and artificially elevated”.
He continued: “It is right to say that on any analysis of the applicant’s maturity, he is closer to the starting point of a 14-year-old rather than a 17-year-old boy. The point we make is age and maturity were very important issues in this case, and could very much affect the end result for this particular applicant.”
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opposed the appeal bid. Deanna Heer KC, for the CPS, said: “The overwhelming evidence is that Eddie is a highly intelligent young man.
“It was apparent from the evidence that Eddie was neither suggestible nor biddable. Eddie demonstrated himself throughout to be just as enthusiastic about what they were going to do as Scarlett.”
Ratcliffe attended the hearing via a video link, dressed in a dark suit and a shirt and tie. Brianna’s family were also in attendance remotely. He showed no emotion when the appeal was dismissed.
During the murder trial at Manchester Crown Court, jurors heard that the killers were “high-functioning” and came from normal backgrounds, but had fascinations for violence and murder and a “thirst for killing”.
