Mum of murdered teen says daughter 'fell down black hole'

Esther Ghey has recalled how her daughter “fell down a black hole” on the internet before she was brutally murdered. Brianna Ghey, from Warrington, was just 16 when she was deceitfully drawn to Culcheth Linear Park by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.

The Birchwood Community High School student was caught off guard and stabbed 28 times on February 11 last year; her body was later found in the park by locals walking their dog. The two teenage murderers orchestrated their heinous act through chilling messages on WhatsApp, drawing inspiration from content shared on the dark web.

Since the devastating loss of her daughter, Esther has been an advocate for introducing mindfulness in schools and tightening regulations on internet access for young people.

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In her latest effort to raise awareness, the mum-of-two is co-hosting a podcast series named Parents vs The Internet. This ten-episode series features Esther, a new product development technologist, teaming up with journalist Liz Hull to discuss with various guests "how we can keep our children safer".

This week’s episode sees them joined by Ofcom's policy director for child safety, Almudena Lara. Together, they unpack the new Online Safety Act, how they hope it will make a material difference in policing big tech content, and what more needs to be done to keep our children safe.

Esther said: “Brianna was self-harming, she was restricting her eating, and she was extremely vulnerable. During lockdown, she was so isolated. She went down this black hole of looking into content, which, I imagine, started off with about how to lose weight. Then she just kept getting fed more and more dark content.“

Throughout the podcast, listeners will delve into topics such as mobile phone companies' responsibility in child safeguarding and how to configure phones to be suitable for different ages.

Esther has previously expressed her belief that her daughter Brianna would have been much happier without a smartphone in her final years. She said: "She was so protective over her phone. If I asked to look at her phone, there would be holes in the door, and she would go absolutely mad because I took it off her."

"I really do believe, especially in the final years of Brianna's life, it would have been so much more peaceful and happier if the smartphone hadn't been there in the first place."

Esther said she launched the podcast not to "scaremonger or put fear" into other parents but rather to "educate them". She admitted to not being fully aware of the content Brianna was accessing or the extent of it. She added: "I wish I had known because when you are educated and have this knowledge, it is only