Obsessive teen stalker Logan MacPhail jailed after stabbing schoolgirl 36 times in alleyway

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A teen stalker who brutally knifed his ex-girlfriend to death in a dark alleyway has been jailed for 17 years. Obsessive Logan MacPhail followed 15-year-old Holly Newton through Hexham in Northumberland after she left school in January.

Jealous MacPhail, 17, had travelled 90 minutes from his school in Gateshead, 25 miles away, to stalk Holly after she left Queen Elizabeth High and then went shopping with her friends. She had been due to speak to police with her mother about her dangerous ex, The Mirror reports.

After MacPhail had turned up at their family home, Holly agreed to discuss the stalking with cops, alongside her mum, Micala Trussler. But she wanted to go out with her pals after school, and persuaded Micala to push back the meeting until later that day.

MacPhail was caught on camera boarding a bus in Gateshead, wearing a black puffer jacket, black cap, tracksuit bottoms and trainers. He had a 6in knife stowed away in his backpack. He was later seen on CCTV speaking to Holly at a bus stop just moments before he fatally attacked her.

MacPhail had boarded the bus in his hometown at 1.41pm, arriving in Hexham at 3.13pm. He waited around outside Holly's school and saw her leaving with another boy. He then spoke to her at the bus stop and asked to chat to her down a nearby alley in Priestpopple.

It was there that he brutally stabbed Holly, who had recently ended their 18-month relationship, 36 times with the blade. Screams were heard as he set upon her with the weapon.

One blow fatally penetrated her back, entering her chest and lung, as she screamed, alerting horrified passers by. He also slashed the throat of a 16-year-old boy who tried to save her, narrowly missing an artery in his neck.

Holly had complained about MacPhail "stalking" her just hours before he stabbed her multiple times in the Hexham alleyway. And mum Micala spoke during the trial to describe the decision to reschedule meeting her daughter as "the biggest mistake of [her] life".

Ruling that he be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure due to his age at the time of the offence, Mr Justice Hillier said that the minimum term before he would be considered for parole was 17 years. It was reduced to 15 years and 89 days because of the time which he had already been held on remand.

Justice Hillier said: "The stark facts are that you made the decision to stab a 15-year-old to death with a knife you were carrying unlawfully in a public place, having followed her secretly around town for an hour because your relationship had ended and you were jealous of the fact that she might see someone else.

"What happened to Holly should not happen to any child or parent." Holly's mum Micala Trussler told how her daughter had "begged" her to let her go into town on the day she died. She agreed, rather than asking her to come home to see officers about MacPhail. The meeting was instead rescheduled for later that evening.

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"In the end, the biggest mistake of my life," she said. "He has ruined our lives and he took Holly's." MacPhail, who has autism and difficulty reading and writing, was arrested at the scene. Video of his police interviews was played at a hearing where a judge had to rule if he was mentally fit to enter a plea in his trial.

He was found guilty of murder and wounding with intent to cause serious harm to the boy of 16, who cannot be named. Holly, a "much-loved, talented" schoolgirl, was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after the attack despite the best efforts of medics to save her.

Queen Elizabeth High School described her as a "truly lovely student" who was "quiet, conscientious, helpful and kind".

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