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Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death on February 11

Photo: Cheshire Police Department/AP

Two British teenagers have been found guilty of the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey. The two teenagers killed the transgender girl earlier this year in a park in Warrington, near Manchester in northwest England, in a "gruesome attack," the court said.

The boy and girl, who were 15 years old at the time of the murder and were not named due to their age, spent months hatching a murder plan and compiling a list of several potential victims they knew personally.

Ghey, who had arranged to meet the girl at a local park on Feb. 11, was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife before her body was discovered by a couple walking their dogs.

Two teenagers, "obsessed with murder"

According to prosecutors, Ghey's killers had exchanged hundreds of WhatsApp messages in the run-up to the murder in which they exchanged fantasies of murder and torture, with the girl also admitting that she enjoyed watching videos about serial killers, murder and torture.

The two convicts, referred only to Girl X and Boy Y, denied killing Ghey and blamed each other for the fatal stabbing. It is not known which of them or whether both had the knife in their hands. Neither of them was known to the police.

A jury of seven men and five women convicted the two after a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court. The jury deliberated for only four hours and 40 minutes.

"The planning, the violence and the age of the murderers are unbelievable. Brianna Ghey was stabbed 28 times in broad daylight in a public park," said Assistant Chief Prosecutor Ursula Doyle. Girl X and boy Y seem to have exerted a deadly influence on each other, putting their dark murderous fantasies into action."

Nigel Parr, Detective Inspector at Cheshire Police, described the murder outside the court as "a senseless murder committed by two teenagers obsessed with murder whose sole motive for killing Brianna was to find out what it would be like."

Boy Y has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and is nonverbal, while girl X has traits of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Victim's mother asks for sympathy for perpetrators' families

Outside the court, Brianna's mother said her daughter's killers had shown "not a bit of remorse," but she called for some empathy and compassion to be shown to the families of the convicted couple.

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Esther Ghey read a statement to the press after the verdict was announced

Photo: Oli Scarff / AFP

"We miss Brianna so much, and our house feels empty without her laughter," said Esther Ghey. "To know how frightened my otherwise fearless child must have been when she was alone in that park with someone she called her friend will haunt me forever.

The sentence against the two juvenile offenders will be handed down after Christmas.

czl/Reuters/AP