Teenager who hacked 15-year-old ex-girlfriend to death in knife attack jailed for life

A teenager who stabbed 15-year-old Holly Newton to death so viciously his knife broke has been jailed for a minimum of 17 years.

Holly was stabbed 36 times in an alleyway by her ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail, now 17, after he stalked her for an hour through the town centre of Hexham, Northumberland, in January 2023.

He was unmasked by the judge following his trial at Newcastle Crown Court and was handed down the sentence after he attacked Holly so brutally his knife broke.

Holly’s mother Micala Trussler was watched by MacPhail as she recalled racing to the scene of the Friday tea-time attack and feeling frightened of what she would find, only to be met with a more horrific scenario than she had imagined.

The mum-of-four said: ‘The enormity and severity cannot be put into words.

‘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 had followed Holly around Hexham for 45 minutes after she finished school and after having a brief exchange outside of a pizza shop, he launched an attack so violent it broke the blade of his knife.

He denied murdering Holly and wounding in relation to a boy who tried to intervene but was found guilty by a jury of both charges.

Ms Trussler said Macphail had been welcomed into her home, as her daughter’s first ever boyfriend and he was always ‘mild mannered and polite’ and they seemed happy together.

But she said MacPhail’s visit to her home the night before the murder, when he was refused access, has left her chilled with thoughts of what could have happened to the family if he had got in.

Her mother had been so concerned that day that she contacted police about the then 16-year-old boy, who was known to her daughter, and it was agreed that Holly should not leave school if the youth was outside.

Ms Trussler said Holly should have been doing her GCSEs and preparing for prom then going on to perhaps marry and have children of her own.

She added: ‘It’s more than one life lost that night, our hearts also stopped.’

Macphail turns 18 in December but a High Court judge took the unusual step of lifting the ban on reporting his identity before he becomes an adult.

During the trial, prosecutor David Brooke KC told the court Macphail and Holly had recently split up and added:

‘It is clear from the evidence that Logan Macphail 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.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.