Threats to families of Brianna's killers must stop, judge says

The judge in the Brianna Ghey trial has warned those "tempted to direct vitriol or malice" towards the families of her teenage killers that it ignores the "express wishes" of the victim's grieving mother.

- Helen Pidd

Mrs Justice Yip said on Thursday she would lift the reporting restrictions preventing the pair from being named when they are sentenced on 2 February, saying there was a "strong public interest in full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case".

The family of the female defendant had already received death threats, the local council told Yip, who presided over the trial of the two 16-year-olds convicted this week.

In a written judgment on lifting the restrictions, released, Yip urged those behind the threats to "question the part they are playing in society in the context of a case in which dark thoughts and hateful messages became enacted in real life".

The defendants could have been identified upon turning 18, but Yip said continuing the court order granting anonymity until then would "represent a substantial and unreasonable restriction on the freedom of the press".

She noted that the teenagers - referred to as Girl X and Boy Y throughout the trial - had been repeatedly identified online and that the identities of their families "must already be known within their local communities".