‘I want to look to the future’ – Esther Ghey on ITV's Loose Women

After her daughter, Brianna, was brutally murdered last year, Esther has started campaigning for tighter restrictions on mobile phones for young people.

Speaking on the ITV show today, Thursday, Esther elaborated on why she believes that these restrictions are necessary.

“I think as a parent, as a mother of a child who was struggling with her mobile phone usage and she was clearly addicted, I feel that I knew something needed to change,” she said.

“But like many other people, we don’t have a voice until something really tragic happens.

“I suppose I could see that something needed to change, now I have that voice, I’m going to keep pushing until something has.”

Esther has sent up a petition calling for mobile phone companies to take more responsibility for children’s welfare, which has more than 120,000 signatures.

Part of her campaign is hoping to see harmful word monitoring and screen time limiters built in devices at the point of purchase.

“I think it’s so difficult to be a parent, it’s always been hard being a parent but now with this technology you just can’t monitor everything that your child or teenager is accessing 24/7,” she said to the panellists on Loose Women.

“I would urge parents to take as long as possible before giving their child a phone.”

Esther's daughter, Brianna, was only 16 when she was brutally murdered last year (Image: Cheshire Police)

One of Brianna’s killers, Scarlett Jenkinson, was accessing the dark web on her mobile phone for months before the horrific attack on Brianna in Culcheth Linear Park in February last year.

Esther has been in contact with Scarlett’s mother since the trial where she was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison.

“I think for me, Scarlett’s mother isn’t the one who committed the crime and I understand how difficult it is and how many external influences there are in bringing a child up,” said Esther when asked why she reached out.

“No matter how hard we try now to bring a child up in the best possible way, what they’re accessing online is also going to be influencing them.

“I also saw the way that the parents were in court and how harrowed they were as well – essentially, we’ve both been through something really horrific, we’ve both lost our child.

“I just wanted her to know I didn’t blame her.”

Esther is now campaigning in memory of Brianna (Image: free)

Esther discussed the fact that she wanted the names of her daughter’s killers to be released to the public, as they were given anonymity throughout the trial due to being under 18.

“We’d been through this whole trial, and I decided that I wanted the names being released at the sentencing because ultimately by the time they are 18 their names would be released anyway.

“I didn’t want them to have another layer of attention and I wanted a sense of closure for our family as well.

“I want to look to the future, I want to see what we can do positively, how we can actually make a change and make things better rather than that being dragged up over and over again.”

As well as discussing her campaign and the trial, Esther also discussed her use of mindfulness and meditation.

Mindfulness is now being taught in schools across Warrington, including Birchwood High School, where Brianna was a student.

As the segment concluded, Esther shared some personal news with the panellists, revealing her engagement to her partner Wes.

The episode of Loose Women with Esther is available to watch on catch-up on ITVX.