Your comment which I objected to:
“There was one person who as part of already deciding to kill someone anyway came out with some transphobic comments in a conversation with his fellow killer.”
My comments:
“you said it was just transphobia and they were already going to kill her”
“the argument you made is literally one of the arguments which Eddie Ratcliffe’s defence made in court (that he was transphobic, but it wasn’t the real motivation and he was just doing what Scarlet said. The court explicitly rejected the argument.”
The judge at sentencing explaining that she rejects the argument that he just came out with some transphobic comments, and that Brianna was going to be killed anyway:
”[to eddie]You did not know Brianna. You knew only what Scarlett told you. She said Brianna was transgender and sent you pictures of her. Your messages about Brianna were transphobic. You consistently referred to her in a way that was dehumanising, calling her “it”. You also described her as a “femboy thing”. When discussing killing Brianna, you agreed with Scarlett that she would be the easiest victim and said “and I want to see if it will scream like a man or a girl.” After the failed attempt on 28 January and in answer to Scarlett expressing her desire to see Brianna suffering, you said “Really all I wanted is to see what size dick it had”.
”Your explanation is that you were just copying language used by friends, including Scarlett, to fit in. Throughout the messaging, Scarlett almost always referred to Brianna as a girl and used the pronouns she and her, so you were not following Scarlett’s lead. It may be that you picked up some of this language and the hostile views at school. But after considering all the evidence I have about you, I am satisfied that you are quite capable of holding your own views.”
“I find also that you, Eddie, were motivated in part by hostility towards Brianna because she was transgender. You dehumanised Brianna by constantly referring to her as “it”. Your messages about wanting to see if “it will scream like a man or a girl” and “Really all I wanted is to see what size dick it had”, along with checking the night before the killing that Brianna was coming, show your own interests in killing Brianna, linked to your hostility towards her as a transgender person. Just as you knew of Scarlett’s motives, she knew of yours, although I cannot go as far as to say she used your transphobic attitudes to get you involved. I therefore find that you both took part in a
brutal and planned murder which was sadistic in nature and where a secondary motive was hostility towards Brianna because of her transgender identity.”