Mum's warning to parents after daughter stabbed to death

Esther Ghey has spoken out about the dangers of smartphones after her daughter 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".

In the latest episode, the podcast hosts talk with Carolyn Bunting, joint CEO of Internet Matters - a not-for-profit organisation set up by leading internet providers like BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin to protect children better online. They discuss blind spots in the new Online Safety Act, what more needs to be done and why schools are the key battleground.

Esther said: “Parents aren’t aware of the harm and the danger that is there on the smartphones. It is so difficult to keep tabs on everything with disappearing messages and not being able to screenshot certain messages. For me, the disappearing message shouldn’t be a function because of how a parent is supposed to safeguard that.

"Schools are constantly firefighting with smartphones. The majority of issues that schools have are down to social media and phones. Emma Mills (Brianna’s headteacher) has tried to tackle this by introducing pouches for smartphones to lock them away. But it is hard to manage when you have such a high number of pupils in a school. This is why she got these pouches but they cost £17,000.”

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 then that you can actually make a change and that you can help."