KILLER Scarlett Jenkinson was described as a ‘good student who had made a mistake’ following her suspension for bringing cannabis edibles into Culcheth High School.

Today, Friday, Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard how in 2022, a request was made by Culcheth High School to transfer Scarlett Jenkinson to Birchwood High School.

This was following her suspension from Culcheth after she brought cannabis edibles into school, consumed them on site, and supplied them to another student who believed they were sweets.

Giving evidence this morning, Angela Clark, deputy safeguarding lead at Birchwood Community High School, said that prior to this transfer, Scarlett was described by Culcheth High School as a ‘good student who had made a mistake’.

It was also heard that Culcheth High School said they wanted to give Scarlett another chance as an alternative to a permanent exclusion.

Yesterday, the inquest heard a statement jointly approved by both school’s lawyers, that said there is 'no consistent recollection' about the information passed on about Jenkinson from one school to the other.


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But the schools say, even if all available details had been passed on, it was still likely Birchwood would have taken Jenkinson on as a pupil.

During Scarlett’s time at Birchwood under the managed transfer, Ms Clark said: “Scarlett never displayed any behaviours that suggested a risk assessment was necessary.

“There was nothing to suggest she should not mix with other pupils.

“She presented as quiet and reserved.

“Brianna and Scarlett were friendly towards each other, and this was seen as positive for both girls.

“There were never any signs of any problems or any untoward or inappropriate behaviour between them.

“There was no indication that Scarlett could be a danger to someone else.

“We could not have foreseen what would happen.”

Today the inquest also heard from Fiona Cowan, head of children’s safeguarding services at Warrington Borough Council, who said that practitioners were not aware of anything that would make Scarlett a ‘serious risk’.

She said that a review that was conducted concluded that giving a child a cannabis edible without them knowing about it was 'not considered behaviour at a level that reasonably would make practitioners believe she would go on to commit murder'.

On February 10, 2023, the managed transfer of Scarlett from Culcheth to Birchwood was withdrawn as Scarlett was not meeting her attendance targets and there was also an incident where it was alleged by another pupil that Scarlett was bringing in cannabis edibles.

Ms Clark said that at the time of Brianna’s death, a full mental health assessment of Scarlett by CAMHS, child and adolescent mental health services, was still to take place.

The inquest is expected to be concluded later this afternoon.