Chilling CCTV footage captured the moment a jealous ex-boyfriend stalked 15-year-old Holly Newton for 45 minutes undetected before luring her into an alleyway where he stabbed her to death.
Logan MacPhail, 17, was sentenced to life detention with a minimum term of 17 years at Newcastle Crown Court today for murdering the schoolgirl in January 2023.
MacPhail, who was unhappy about their break-up, followed her through a Northumberland market town when she finished classes for the day before knifing her 36 times and stabbing a teenage boy who tried to stop the attack.
CCTV showed him wearing a snood and a baseball cap and ducking out of sight as he followed Holly and her friends around the town centre.
One heartbreaking video shows the teen in conversation with the killer at a bus stop, shortly before he lured her to the alleyway, where he repeatedly stabbed her with the knife he had been carrying around.
The prosecution said MacPhail, who has autism and learning difficulties, did not accept that their 18-month relationship was over.
The night before he murdered Holly, he travelled 40 miles from his home in Gateshead to hers in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, where he hung around for hours.
MacPhail was eventually taken home by police who had been alerted by his mother that he was missing.
Holly’s mother, Micala Trussler, was concerned enough to contact the police and arranged to speak to an officer about MacPhail’s behaviour the next afternoon.
That same afternoon, MacPhail stabbed Holly to death. He told police ‘she was being too horrible’ as he tried to make excuses for killing the schoolgirl.
During the trial, prosecutor David Brooke KC told the court Holly and MacPhail had been a couple but had recently split and added: ‘It is clear from the evidence that he was very unhappy about the break-up.
‘Logan MacPhail travelled that Friday from Gateshead to Hexham where Holly Newton went to school. He had been to school that day in Gateshead. He told his teacher at lunchtime that he was very tired and wanted to go home.
‘He was allowed to leave and left at 1.30pm. However, instead of going home Logan MacPhail caught a bus to the Metrocentre and then another bus to Hexham arriving at 3pm.
‘He then walked a short way to a park called Sele Park which is in the direction of the school.’
The court was told Holly was also heading in the direction of the park in the company of two other male friends she had met up with.
MacPhail spotted the group and began to follow them from a distance for around 45 minutes without being seen.
Mr Brooke told jurors by this point one of the males had left but Holly remained with a 16-year-old boy and the pair made their way to a pizza shop where they ordered food.
He added: ‘Logan MacPhail hid for a bit further up the road but then walked down to where Holly Newton was waiting outside the Pizza shop.
‘Holly Newton was not at all happy about seeing him.
‘For quite a few minutes Logan MacPhail sat on a seat at the bus stop and eventually Holly Newton agreed to speak to him in an alleyway next to the pizza shop.
‘What Holly Newton didn’t know was that Logan MacPhail had brought a knife with him.
‘The other male says that he heard Holly Newton’s screams from the alley.
‘He ran into the alley. He says he did not at first fully understand what was happening but he could see that Logan MacPhail was attacking her.
‘He saw Holly on the ground and pulled him off in a headlock but he was then attacked himself and also received stab injuries.
‘He then ran for help to the pizza shop next to the alleyway.
‘There were passers-by and people in the shop who also went to stop MacPhail. He was pulled off Holly while still stabbing her.’
Mr Brooke said the knife being used by the defendant broke in the attack.
Holly was taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle but despite all efforts to safe her, she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
MacPhail told cops it was Holly’s idea to talk in the alleyway and that she had been ‘horrible’ to him.
Mr Brooke told the court: ‘Then he said his mind went blank. The next thing he remembered was being on top of Holly Newton. He admitted having the knife in his hand.’
He said 12 of Holly’s injuries were stab wounds, 19 others were caused by a ‘slashing motion’ and five were to her hands, where she had tried to stop the attack.
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 – but the jury rejected his story.
In a victim statement on Thursday, Mrs Trussler described not being able to be with her fatally-injured daughter in hospital because her body ‘was a crime scene’.
The mother-of-four said Holly and MacPhail had a typical teenage relationship at first, but her daughter came to realise he was controlling her.
Mrs Trussler believed her daughter was the victim of domestic abuse, although she was under 16 at the time, and was caused emotional turmoil by her ex-partner.
He changed her social media passwords and made her believe he could hack into her accounts, as well as threatening to self-harm.
The night before the murder, MacPhail tried repeatedly to be allowed into Holly’s home and hung around for hours, trying to convince one of her siblings to open the door.
‘I dread to think what could have happened to the rest of my family had he been allowed inside,’ the mother said.
During the two-day sentencing exercise, there was discussion about MacPhail’s learning difficulties, his autism and his culpability.
Brooke, 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.
Nigel Edwards KC, defending, said MacPhail’s progress since he has been in secure accommodation was ‘meteoric’.
Sentencing MacPhail, Mr Justice Hilliard said: ‘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.
‘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.’
The judge said Holly had knife injuries, that were inflicted with severe force, to her jaw, skull, back bone and shoulder during the murder on January 27 2023.
He said the force used in the knife attack was so great that the weapon broke and the blade was bent out of shape, and he was sure the defendant meant to kill his victim.
Speaking of the family’s loss, the judge added: ‘All those years ahead for a 15-year-old girl that she and they will never see.’
MacPhail had admitted manslaughter, but was convicted of murder as well as wounding with intent on the teenage boy.
The judge said that after MacPhail was arrested at the scene, the youth told police: ‘I was meant to kill myself but it went too far.’
Mr Justice Hilliard said Holly’s mother, Micala Trussler, described her daughter as a ‘beautiful child who grew into a funny and happy teenager who would do anything for anyone’.
Holly loved sport and dancing, was a quiet student who never had a bad school report and had a small but tight-knit friend group, the court heard.
The parents of schoolgirl Holly Newton, 15, who was murdered by her stalker ex-boyfriend have warned other families about how he tried to control their daughter.
Days after his relationship with Holly Newton ended, Logan MacPhail tracked her around Hexham, Northumberland, and knifed her to death in a back alley in January 2023.
MacPhail, 17, was detained at Newcastle Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 17 years on Friday, for Holly’s murder.
Chillingly, he had visited the family home in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, late the previous evening and tried to get into their house, but was refused access by one of Holly’s siblings.
Her mother said Holly felt sorry for MacPhail, who has autism, a serious speech impediment and learning difficulties, and did not know how to end the relationship.
Mrs Trussler said: ‘It got to a point where she really made her mind up, but still struggled to disconnect, mainly because he wouldn’t allow her to do that.’
She added: ‘He was obsessed with her for a long time. He didn’t like her to go out.
‘He didn’t want her to go out with her friends. He needed to know where she was all the time, even if she was just at home.
‘He wanted to know what she was doing. He changed her passwords on all of her social media, so she was quite upset about that, because she couldn’t get into any of it.
‘There was just a lot of controlling behaviour going on.’
Mrs Trussler said because of her young age, the legal system did not consider that her daughter had been a victim of domestic abuse.
But the family was sure that MacPhail, then aged 16, exercised coercive control over Holly, even though they did not live together.
Mrs Trussler said Holly told her that MacPhail had once warned her that ‘if he couldn’t have her, then nobody could’.
The grieving mother said: ‘What we didn’t know is he meant it.’
Speaking of the family’s loss, the judge added: ‘All those years ahead for a 15-year-old girl that she and they will never see.’
A teenage boy who was stabbed four times by MacPhail after he tried to stop the fatal attack said he was now struggling with his mental health.
The youth, who cannot be identified by the media due to his age, told the court in his victim statement that he found his GCSEs difficult and found it difficult to concentrate following the attack.
He said: ‘I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I cannot imagine what Holly’s family are going through.
‘Whatever sentence Logan gets it ain’t going to change what happened that day.’
Macphail denied murdering Holly and wounding with intent, in relation to a boy who tried to intervene, but was found guilty by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.
The injured boy was stabbed multiple times and suffered injury to his thigh, neck and shoulder.
The judge commended the teen, and passers by who tried to help Holly, for their bravery on that day.