An obsessed ex-boyfriend who stabbed a 15-year-old girl 36 times in an alleyway after school has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 17 years in prison.
Logan MacPhail’s attack on Holly Newton after he stalked her for an hour through the town centre of Hexham, Northumberland, in January 2023, was so savage that the blade snapped.
The killer, now 17, was unmasked by a judge earlier this month after he was convicted of murder following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.
Jailing him for life on Friday, judge Mr Justice Hilliard told the teenager he was “filled with resentment and jealousy” when he attacked Holly after realising their 18-month relationship was over.
“The stark facts are that you made a conscious decision to stab a 15-year-old girl to death with a knife that you were carrying unlawfully in a public place having followed her secretly around town for an hour, all because your relationship with her had ended,” the judge said.
“You were jealous of the fact she might see someone else. What happened in this case should not happen to any child or any parent.”
In a moving victim impact statement read to the court on Thursday while her daughter’s killer watched remotely via videolink, Micala Trussler said Holly “died not knowing her mam was by her side”.
Ms Trussler, a mother-of-four, said she raced to the scene of the tea-time attack only to be met with a more horrific scenario than she had imagined.
“The enormity and severity cannot be put into words,” she said.
“I was stopped from seeing my daughter in the alleyway and the ambulance due to the horrifying condition she was in. My daughter died not knowing her mam was by her side.
“Once at hospital, I was unable to even touch my daughter, hug her, kiss her or hold her hand. My daughter was a crime scene, she was evidence.”
MacPhail was Holly’s first boyfriend and at the start they had a normal teenage relationship, the mother said.
She described him as mild-mannered and polite during his regular visits to their home in Haltwhistle, Northumberland.
Holly had tried to help MacPhail, who had autism and learning difficulties, learn to read by getting him books from the library. But things changed when Holly matured and decided to end the relationship, her mother said.
He changed her social media passwords and made her believe he could hack into her accounts as well as threatening to self-harm.
MacPhail travelled to her home the night before the murder and hung around for hours, trying to convince one of her siblings to let him in.
“I dread to think what could have happened to the rest of my family had he been allowed inside,” the mother said.
The parent was concerned enough to contact the police and arranged to speak to an officer about MacPhail’s behaviour the next day. But that same afternoon, he stabbed Holly to death.
Ms Trussler believes her daughter was the victim of domestic abuse, although because of her age her death will not be recorded as a domestic homicide.
She is raising money in Holly’s memory to buy trauma boxes to help save lives of people at risk of bleeding to death and also wants teenagers to learn more about identifying toxic relationships.
“Holly is missed beyond words and can never be described and never be forgotten,” she added.
MacPhail, who met Holly when they both attended Army cadets, claimed he never planned to attack her but wanted to use the knife to kill himself.
The teen denied murder but admitted manslaughter, claiming he blacked out, but his story was rejected by the jury. He was convicted of murder as well as wounding with intent after a boy stepped in to try to stop the attack.
The youth, who cannot be named due to his age, was stabbed four times by MacPhail. He told the court in his victim statement that he was struggling with his mental health found his GCSEs difficult following the attack.
He said: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I cannot imagine what Holly’s family are going through.”
During the two-day sentencing exercise, there was discussion about MacPhail’s learning difficulties, his autism and his culpability.
David Brooke KC, prosecuting, pointed out the teenager was able to get to Haltwhistle from his home in Gateshead alone the night before the murder, to follow Holly around Hexham while disguised and to lie to her about his whereabouts.
“He was perfectly able to make rational choices,” Mr Brooke said.
Outside court, detective sergeant Darren Davies, of Northumbria Police, said: “We would urge everyone to look at the pain this incident has caused to so many people and think twice before carrying a weapon of any kind.”
Lynsey Colling, deputy chief crown prosecutor for Crown Prosecution Service North East, added: “It is very clear from the evidence in this case that Logan MacPhail killed Holly Newton after being unable to accept that their relationship was over.”
