Father of Brianna Ghey’s murderer jailed for sex offences against girls

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The father of the teenage boy who murdered Brianna Ghey has been jailed for 15 months for sexual offences against teenage girls.

Kyle Ratcliffe, 36, the father of Eddie Ratcliffe, who is serving life along with his accomplice Scarlett Jenkinson, both 16, for the murder of transgender teenager Brianna, was described as a risk to girls at Manchester Crown Court.

Ratcliffe, who appeared from custody at HMP Forest Bank, Salford, admitted two offences of exposure in November last year involving two 16-year-old girls at a bus stop. The offences were committed shortly before his son went on trial.

He also pleaded guilty to taking an indecent photo of a pre-pubescent girl by covertly recording video of her in a changing room in August last year.

The court heard he has previous past convictions for similar offences.

Jailing him for 15 months and ordering that he must be on the sex offenders register for 10 years, Judge John Potter said the prosecution and conviction of Ratcliffe’s son for murder was not “in any way” mitigation for the offending.

Judge Potter said: “This is not the first time in your life you have harmed others in this way.

“The offences on this indictment coupled with your previous convictions make it quite clear that you have a sexual attraction towards female children and teenagers whom you objectivise for the purpose of you own sexual gratification.

“This, Mr Ratcliffe, has potential to cause very serious harm and portrays you, in my judgment, as currently presenting a significant risk to such individuals.”

A reporting restriction preventing publication of Ratcliffe’s prosecution was lifted by Judge Potter.

Earlier, the court heard Kyle Ratcliffe committed the two “identical” offences of exposure on successive days, the mornings of November 22 and 23 last year.

Father-of-three Ratcliffe, who had run a kick-boxing gym in Leigh, Greater Manchester, had been driving his Maserati car along a busy road at around 7.45am.

As he passed two 16-year-old girls at a bus stop waiting to go to college, he turned his head towards them and as they looked back at him they could see his hand moving up and down and his trousers pulled down to his knees.

Michelle Brown, prosecuting, said one girl was “shocked and in disbelief” at what she had seen.

The next day, Ratcliffe again passed them on the road at the same bus stop and was seen masturbating again in his car.

On this occasion, one of the girls, who cannot be identified, took a photo of his car with her mobile phone.

Both girls expressed “shock, confusion and concern” and told their parents, and police were able to trace Ratcliffe from the photo of his car.

Detectives then analysed his phone and found a video taken three months before on the afternoon of August 22, 2023 at a waterpark in Cheshire.

The court heard Ratcliffe secretly recorded a “pre-pubescent” girl, aged 12 to 15, getting changed out of a swimming costume and exposing her breasts and vaginal area.

Internet use on his phone also showed he had searched for pornography online using terms including “students”, “innocent teens” and “public dick flash”.

Ratcliffe initially told a “pack of lies” to police, claiming the video had been sent to him and the exposure offences were caused by a medical problem he had.

But he later admitted the offences, and the court heard Ratcliffe had previous convictions for similar behaviour.

In 2008 he was given a suspended prison sentence for exposure for masturbating in his car towards a girl aged 16.

In 2012 he was given a three-year community order for exposure after being seen masturbating behind the wheel of his vehicle while stopped at a red light.

Mark Friend, mitigating, said, “One knows not the motivation to behave in the way he did.

“The reality is, it is perhaps either difficult or unrealistic to divide this defendant from that which has befallen his family.

“So far as their life as it is now, it is but a shadow that they enjoyed prior to February 2023.

“The defendant accepts that he has played his own part in this misery and left his wife and other two children dealing with that burden alone.”

Eddie Ratcliffe and Jenkinson were jailed for life earlier this month, with minimum terms of 20 and 22 years set respectively, for the “sadistic” murder of Brianna.

Passing sentence on them, Mrs Justice Yip said the “exceptionally brutal” murder had elements of both sadism by Jenkinson and transphobic hate on the part of Ratcliffe.

Both were aged 15 when they carried out the “disturbing” plan to murder Brianna, 16, in a “frenzied and ferocious” attack with a hunting knife.

Brianna was stabbed 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back after being lured to Linear Park, Culcheth, a village near Warrington, Cheshire, on the afternoon of February 11 last year.