VIGILS HAVE BEEN held in Cheshire and across the wider UK to remember Brianna Ghey after she was stabbed to death in north-western England last weekend.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in Warrington, the town where she was killed, as well as central London’s Soho Square on Saturday afternoon to pay their respects to the 16-year-old.
Brianna, who was a transgender girl from Birchwood in Warrington, was found with fatal wounds on a path in nearby Culcheth Linear Park at around 3.13pm on Saturday 11 February.
Some of those gathered in Warrington wore rainbow flags draped across their shoulders, laid flowers and wrote tributes on a placard that was placed in the town square.
The Labour MP for Warrington North, Charlotte Nichols, said the local community had been left “reeling”.
Speaking at the vigil, she said: “It’s every MP’s worst nightmare to be asked to speak to eulogise a constituent who has been murdered and never more so than in the case of a child.
“Brianna Ghey’s murder has left our community reeling and I cannot begin to imagine the agony that her family, her friends and all her loved ones are feeling right now – no parent should ever have to bury a child.”
She added: “Trans lives matter and trans young people should have the fundamental rights to dignity and safety that should be universal human rights.”
Gatherings were also due to take place on Saturday in Derby, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle and Reading to pay tribute to Brianna.
A boy and a girl, both aged 15, have been charged with her murder and appeared via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday where a trial date was fixed for July.
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