The dark web warped the minds of Brianna Ghey’s killers – it must be outlawed

IT takes a special kind of person to offer loving words to the parents of the children who have murdered your beautiful, precious daughter.

But that is what Brianna Ghey’s mum did this week.

After two teenagers — named as Girl X and Boy Y — were found guilty and face life sentences for killing 16-year-old Brianna, brave Esther said: “Please have some empathy and compassion for the families of the young people convicted of this horrific crime.

"They, too, have lost a child and must live the rest of their lives knowing what their child has done.”

I can’t feel anything but empathy and compassion for them, too, because the anguish of knowing your baby has turned into an evil child killer — and asking how on earth that could possibly happen — must be utterly unbearable.

The court heard that the killers came from “normal” backgrounds.

Both are intelligent but, like many others of their generation, suffer from anxiety.

Boy Y has autism spectrum disorder and selective mutism, while Girl X has traits of both autism and ADHD.

The two 15-year-olds were obsessed with the internet and had secrets, just like their peers. But tragically their secrets somehow included an obsession with death.

They had a “kill list” of five children and had plotted how to murder them.

They had discussed how transgender girl Brianna might scream when they attacked her and Girl X said it would be “fun” to stab her “even if she’s dead”.

She then cruelly pretended to be Brianna’s friend to lure her to a park in Warrington, Cheshire.

There, they knifed her 28 times in a “frenzied and ferocious” attack.

Chillingly, neither attacker showed a shred of remorse after they were found guilty of murder.

Unsurprisingly, their poor parents wept. There is no clear answer as to why on earth those children developed a “thirst for killing”.

But one clue is the dark web, which Girl X had developed an obsession with and then shared with Boy Y.

We know the dark web is a place where paedophiles and killers roam — a breeding ground for illegal activity and criminal marketplaces.

It is full of drugs, trafficking, child pornography, torture, suicide — and murder.

The dark web is no place for any normal human being. And certainly no place for those with growing, impressionable and vulnerable brains.

It is intentionally hidden, requiring a specific browser to access it, but the computer-literate teenagers of today can find the resources to access it within minutes, just as Girl X did.

The case bears tragic resemblances to that of two-year-old James Bulger, who was killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson 30 years ago.

Back then there was no internet — instead, people watched videos.

When James was murdered there was speculation that one of his ten-year-old killers had become desensitised after watching horror film Child’s Play 3, featuring killer doll Chucky, then imitated one of the scenes.

New laws were drawn up surrounding the classifications of films to protect children.

Let’s now hope a new law will be drawn up to clamp down on accessing the dark web.

But until that happens, parents — just like those of Girl X and Boy Y — must try to educate their kids about the dangers of the internet, and do their best to find out what exactly they are searching for online.

No child should be able to witness something that could potentially warp their brain into believing stabbing someone can be “fun”.

Because no parent wants to face the devastation of their child being murdered. And no parent wants their son or daughter to turn into a killer.

MATT LUCAS has said that Little Britain will get a woke makeover.
Unsurprisingly, trans-vestite duo Emily and Florence, and Desiree DeVere, who was David Walliams in blackface, will be eradicated.

But even teen chav Vicky Pollard could get the boot. Matt said: “I see things differently now to how we did.

“Things have changed and I respect that.”

We all know things have changed but when a programme like Little Britain goes woke there seems very little point in actually trying to bring it back.

Helen: ‘Isle only romance David’

I’M loving Helen Flanagan’s attitude toward her new relationship.

The former Corrie star is spending Christmas in Bali with ex-boxing champ David Haye as part of a throuple with him and his long-term girlfriend Sian Osborne.

But Helen says she is in a relationship with only David, which I presume means no shenanigans with Sian.

Best of both worlds, as I see it. She gets what she wants then leaves them to it so she can do a bit of festive sunbathing. Perfect.

In awe of kind Alex

ALEX BATTY drifted around Europe with his mum and grandad for six years but it is clear from the video of his interview on The Sun’s website that he has somehow managed to grow up into an absolutely amazing young man.

Now 17, he says he has had no social life and was isolated. Despite sounding incredibly eloquent, he finds talking to people strange.

And most tragically, he has missed out on the normality of being a teen and says that in all those years he had just one friend of the same age.

I hope he gets the therapy he must now surely need and the future back home in the UK that he craves.

But most importantly, now he is back with the grandmother he so clearly adores, he has a happy Christmas. If anybody deserves it, this lad does.

Axe sex mad GP

SEX addiction may be a classic excuse for a love cheat, but not for a GP who knows how to get all the help he needs.

Yet the excuse is what Doctor Thomas Plimmer wheeled out at a tribunal which heard how he romped with a string of women in his surgery, including a married colleague.

The 40-year-old was found guilty over seven complaints, including having his trousers undone in his office, sending an unsolicited video and putting a colleague’s hand on his genitals.

A hearing next April will determine his punishment. Let’s hope they see sense and he gets struck off.

There’s no place for men like this in an NHS that is already crumbling.

I DO love a royal connection. The Middleton family have released a photograph of the Princess of Wales, aged two, sitting at the table during a family Christmas in 1983.

In front of Kate is a table mat from Marks & Spencer’s Autumn Leaves range.

I know that because I have sat down to many a family Christmas dinner where we have used the exact same tableware.

And during my family Christmas this year I plan to persuade my dad to let me flog it on eBay – knowing that, thanks to our future Queen, it has just gone up in price.

Cam is right on kip

IN our house, The Geordie often departs to the spare room.

Usually due to snoring, a child wriggling in between us or one of us having to get up at the crack of dawn.

Occasionally it is down to a good old-fashioned “can’t stand the bloody sight of each other” row.

Cameron Diaz says we should all be doing more of it – sleeping apart, that is, not rowing.

She says: “We should normalise separate bedrooms. I have my house, you have yours. I will go and sleep in my room. You go sleep in your room.

“And we have the bedroom in the middle that we can convene in for our relations.”

Having separate houses seems pretty pointless in a grown-up relationship where you want to share a life, and especially if you want to bring up a family.

Plus, unless you are on a whopping salary, justifying two sets of bills seems madness.

But I am with Cameron on the sleeping apart bit because research shows those who get a good night’s sleep are happier and healthier, plus we don’t lose a romantic connection, a.k.a. sex life, with our other half. So, finally a Hollywood star who talks sense.

Church grinch

MY four-year-old cried on Sunday when we couldn’t go to church.

He’s been obsessed with going so he can watch the bell ringers since he was christened this summer.

But if St Nicholas Church in Stevenage, Herts, was our local, I would never take him again.

Their rector gave a sermon at a carol concert to 200 Year 7 kids where he told them that Santa Claus isn’t real.

The Rev Edward Keene said it was acceptable but the poor kids were confused and crying.

Mr Keene hit back saying it was a “sermon on truth”.

The truth is, kids should be allowed to believe in all of the magic of Christmas for as long as possible.

Surely he’s got enough good material for his sermon without sticking the boot into Santa.