Logan MacPhail, 17, was obsessed with Holly Newton and was unable to accept the end of their relationship
Logan MacPhail, 17, was obsessed with Holly Newton and was unable to accept the end of their relationship
A teenager who stabbed a schoolgirl to death as she shopped with friends in a market town last year was her obsessive ex-boyfriend, it can be revealed.
Logan MacPhail, 17, was unable to accept the end of his relationship with Holly Newton, 15, which began when they were Army Cadets.
He contacted her relentlessly, demanding a reconciliation, and was found outside her mother’s home the night before he stabbed Holly to death.
That evening, police returned MacPhail to his home and made arrangements with Holly and her mother Micala Trussler to speak to them about how to deal with his behaviour.
He murdered Holly the next day, before the meeting with Northumbria Police officers could take place.
CCTV footage showing the moment MacPhail approached Holly before launching his attack can now be published with his face visible for the first time.
MacPhail was also captured on camera stalking Holly through the streets of Hexham in the hour leading up to the murder.
New footage, released for the first time, also shows him dressed all in black with a black rucksack, boarding a bus on his way into town on the afternoon of the murder.
MacPhail had feigned illness to leave school early and then travelled from his home in Birtley, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, to Hexham, a journey that meant taking two buses.
For 45 minutes he followed Holly, her friend and another boy, a teenager who cannot be named, through the streets of Hexham. He then ambushed her and pulled her into an alleyway beside a pizza shop where he launched the fatal assault.
Holly Newton was murdered by a jealous ex-boyfriend. Photo / Northumbria Police
He inflicted 36 wounds on Holly – stabbing her 12 times, slashing her 19 times and causing five “defensive” injuries. The teenage boy she was with was also stabbed as he tried to defend her by grabbing MacPhail in a headlock.
Hours before the ambush, Holly had sent a message to her friend about MacPhail. She texted: “Apparently Logan is gonna meet me outside of school. So he’s basically stalking me at this point. He’s gonna follow me until I talk to him.”
David Brooke KC told jurors of MacPhail’s obsession with Holly, an account that was unable to be reported until now: “The evidence is that Logan MacPhail was deeply unhappy that Holly Newton had split up with him. We say that Logan MacPhail deliberately went to Hexham to find her.
“We say that he followed Holly and [her friend] around the town, looking for an opportunity to speak to her alone because he was jealous of the new boy that Holly was with.
“It may well be that Holly was ‘horrible’ to Logan MacPhail outside the pizza shop, but that was because she did not want to see him. He would not accept that the relationship with Holly Newton was over.”
MacPhail attended Cedar College, Gateshead, a school described as catering for those with autism and special educational needs.
He met Holly through the Army Cadets, and the two are believed to have been in a relationship for about 18 months. A friend of Holly’s told police that her relationship with MacPhail was “toxic”.
‘She said they would frequently argue’
Brooke told jurors: “She said that they would frequently argue. However, Holly liked Logan MacPhail spending his money on her. The two had split up on the previous Saturday, and Logan MacPhail had been contacting her friend ever since. It appears that he was struggling to come to terms with the break-up.”
MacPhail began trying to find out from her friends where Holly was and who she was with.
On the night before the murder, he travelled nearly 65km to Haltwhistle, Northumberland, where he was found lurking outside the home she shared with her mother.
Brooke said MacPhail’s mother reported him missing about 10.40pm.
MacPhail had apparently gone out at 6pm having said that he was going to a shop. Police were told the male was a 16-year-old with autism and was described as “feeling down” because of a recent break-up with his girlfriend.
Police tracked him close to Holly’s family home at 1am. He told the officers that Trussler would not let him in and he had gone there only to ask for his PlayStation back.
He was returned home and murdered Holly the next day, January 27 last year, after she had finished school in Hexham and gone to the shops. Police had arranged to speak with Holly and her mother at 4pm that day about her stalker.
However, Holly pleaded to go out after school and the meeting was rescheduled until 8pm, a decision Trussler said would haunt her forever. She said Holly “begged” her to go into town that day instead of meeting police, adding: “In the end, [it was] the biggest mistake of my life”.
‘Great public concern’
Justice Hilliard revealed why he had decided to allow MacPhail to be named: “The defendant has been convicted of grave crimes, which are of local and national concern”.
“The defendant went to the victim’s home address against her wishes and later followed her after she had left her school at the end of the day.
“However, at present the public are not aware of a key factor in the case, which is the nature of the relationship between the defendant and his victim.
“They had been in a relationship, but she did not wish it to continue. This has rightly not been reported lest it might identify him, but it is impossible to have a full and proper understanding of the case and of why the defendant behaved as he did without knowing this factor.
“The defendant’s identity must also be known already within the different communities where he and the victim lived and were at school. There is great public concern about murders by young people who have carried knives in public places and about violence to women and girls.
“Legitimate debate is assisted by knowing who has committed such offences and their circumstances and the full detail of the offences in question.”
