A distressing 999 call made by a dog walker who came across the body of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey has been played in court.
Brianna, a transgender teenager from Birchwood in Warrington, had been stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in Culcheth Linear Park, near Warrington, on 11 February this year.
Kathryn Vize, who had been walking her dog with husband Andrew when they came across the dying teenager on a path through woods, made the brief call asking for police and ambulance.
A girl and a boy, identified only as X and Y as they cannot be legally named due to their age, are on trial for murder at Manchester Crown Court.
The pair – both now aged 16 – have pleaded not guilty and blame each other for the killing, the jury has heard.
At 3.13pm, Mrs Vize made the call and was clearly distressed. Breathing heavily, she said: “I’m in Culcheth Linear Park. Somebody has been attacked. We have seen some of the attackers run away from the body. She’s very hurt.”
“She’s halfway down some stairs. She’s bleeding heavily. She’s blood on her legs and on her back. She’s really hurt,” she added, while the operator checked the location.
“We thought it was a dummy at first. I don’t want to touch her either. I don’t know if she’s alive. She did twitch before. It’s an absolute mess.”
She continues the call: “Oh God! Oh God!”
‘I don’t think there’s anything you can do for her’
In the recording, she says her husband will stay with the body as she heads to the car park to direct police and ambulance when they arrive.
The female operator tells her: “OK, take some deep breaths. Do you think she’s been hit?”
Mrs Vize says: “I think she’s been attacked. She may have been stabbed. There’s blood coming out of her back. Oh my God! Oh my God!”
She describes the suspects as a boy and a girl wearing dark clothes with hoods up.
The operator then asks if the teen on the floor is breathing.
“No, I don’t think so. I can’t see her face, it’s covered in blood,” Mrs Vize responds.
“I don’t know. It’s awful. She looks dead to me. She’s dressed like a teenager. Oh God! Are they coming quickly? It’s a nightmare.”
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The operator again asks if she can see “breathing at all”.
“I can’t… shirt soaked in blood on her back,” she responds, before the operator asks if her husband can put pressure on the wound.
Mrs Vize responds: “I don’t think there’s anything you can do for her. Oh God!”
The call ends with the operator telling Mrs Vize multiple police units and paramedics are on the way.
The trial’s judge, Mrs Justice Yip, told jurors “that’s an appropriate time to take a break” and briefly adjourned the hearing.
The trial, now on its fourth day, has already heard:
• X and Y had a fixation with torture, violence and death;
• The pair had a “kill list” of other child victims, jurors heard;
• A “murder plan” to kill Brianna was found in X’s bedroom;
• She posted a tribute to her alleged victim on social media after the killing;
• X had an interest in serial killers.
‘It was just so suspicious’
The jury was then shown a police video interview with Mrs Vize, which was filmed on the day after Brianna’s death.
Mrs Vize said she and her husband had been with their two dogs in Culcheth Linear Park when she saw a male and a female.
“When I first saw them I thought they were walking towards me but when I looked up he was stooping and I thought he’s putting a dog on the lead,” she said, adding she later realised he had been standing “over the body”.
The two then crossed a path and went into a farmer’s field, she said.
“At first they appeared to be walking then they started to run, but it wasn’t a sprint, more of a lollop,” she said, describing it as “just so suspicious”.
“They obviously saw us and felt they had to go because their pace definitely quickened up when they saw us.”
She said they were “silent” when she saw them and looked as if they were dressed in a “goth-type style”.
She said she did not see the male’s face but the female made eye contact with her.
She then saw Brianna’s body and said the teen looked “like a rag doll”.
The trial continues.
