Holly Newton's mum's heartbreaking statement in full as murderer Logan MacPhail is sentenced today

The mother of Holly Newton read out a heartbreaking statement during the sentencing of teenage murderer Logan MacPhail.

Earlier this month, Logan MacPhail was unmas ked as Holly's former boyfriend and murderer. After reporting restrictions were lifted, ChronicleLive was finally able to report that at the time of the frenzied attack in Hexham, Holly, 15, had recently split up with MacPhail, who was 16 at the time and is now 17.

Following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, jurors found MacPhail, of Birtley, Gateshead, guilty of murdering Holly and wounding another youth with intent when they went to her aid. On Thursday, the sentencing of MacPhail began at the court.

As part of the sentencing hearing, Holly's heartbroken mother, Micala Trussler, read out a victim impact statement. She said: "I’m sure most of you with children give them a kiss goodbye on their way to school every morning. On Friday, January 27 2023, our lives changed forever. I kissed my four kids goodbye on their way to school and one of them never came home.

"That day, I received a phone call. A stranger spoke to me and told me that my daughter had been stabbed. Those words still play on repeat through my head. We raced to the scene with two of my kids in the back of the car; they were frightened at what was unfolding, and we were absolutely terrified at the scene we might come upon.

"The worst things were running through our heads. We never imagined how horrific the reality of the scene would be; it was far worse than those worst-case scenarios we imagined.

"The enormity and severity of the situation cannot be put into words. I can never erase the trauma on my children’s faces as they watched their sister being placed into an ambulance, and that will live deeply within them for the rest of their lives. I will never forget that I was stopped from seeing my daughter in the alley way and in the ambulance, due to the horrifying condition she was in.

"The last time I saw my daughter was at home that morning, I never saw her with her eyes open again, I never heard any last words. My daughter died not knowing that her mum was by her side, not holding my hand, not knowing I was there for her.

"My daughter’s last moments were taken away from her brutally, painfully, and without her loving family at her side. Once in hospital, I was then unable to even touch my daughter, hug her, kiss her, or hold her hand. My daughter was a crime scene, she was evidence.

"Many people have asked me about Logan, as it must be difficult to comprehend a series of events which led to our beautiful daughter becoming associated with a boy who would ultimately become her murderer. However, the background to their relationship is a typical teenage relationship, and outwardly showed no red flags until the end.

"Logan MacPhail was invited to our home most weekends, as a family we knew him very well. He was Holly’s first and only boyfriend, and it’s no surprise that Logan would fall for a girl like Holly. Holly was a caring and thoughtful young lady. Logan struggled to read, so Holly would go to the local library and take out baby books so that she could help him learn to read. Logan was mild-mannered and polite. His façade is concerning, and I only hope that it can be seen through so that real justice can be served.

"As a couple, Holly and Logan were typical teenagers who had their ups and downs, but they had many good times whilst they were together. I have videos and pictures on my phone of them dancing together in my living room, they look so happy together. As they got older it was apparent that Holly was more mature than Logan and they were growing apart. Holly attempted to end the relationship.

"I was not aware of the sheer scale of the emotional turmoil that Holly was going through at this time. Holly talked to me near the end, but did not reveal the true scale of his behaviour towards her.

"Although the legal definition states that I am not allowed to call it domestic abuse, the situation that Holly found herself in was a classic case of domestic abuse. I do not agree that only those over the age of 16 can be victims of domestic abuse, and I will use Holly’s experience to petition for change. I firmly believe that Logan thought if he couldn’t have Holly then no one could, he became obsessed with her. Holly told me that Logan had accessed her social media accounts and somehow knew her passwords, she had told him to stop but he convinced her that he had software that meant he could hack into the accounts. He used threats of self-harm as emotional blackmail; Holly had wanted to end the relationship earlier but was scared to because of the consequences.

"Logan stalked my daughter, the night before he murdered her, he was creeping around outside of my house at night, sending photographs to my son. We will never know if he had the knife on him at that point, but listening to him trying to manipulate my son into opening the door or window is now terrifying. I dread to think what could have happened to the rest of my family had he been allowed inside.

"On January 27, Logan left his house and later left school early. He travelled a substantial distance on public transport amongst families and other children with his face uncovered. He had a knife – my daughter’s murder weapon - in his pocket. Watching the CCTV as he arrived in Hexham and put on the face covering taking a route along back streets shows me that he knew exactly what he was doing, his sole focus was to find Holly. It chills me to the core watching him hiding in trolley parks and doorways watching and waiting for her, she was blissfully unaware that he was there.

"It has broken my heart to listen to untrue statements and comments during this trial. My caring, kind daughter has been portrayed by Logan to be a nasty, unfaithful girlfriend who had multiple boyfriends. This could not be further from the truth, the night Holly was murdered was the first time she had been out... Holly was a quiet girl who loved dancing and found talking to people she didn’t know awkward. She had a strong sense of what was right and wrong. She was only 13 years old when she met Logan at cadets and had never had a boyfriend before.

"Listening to Logan giving evidence was like listening to his ultimate fantasy, he wants to believe that inside that alleyway Holly pulled him towards her and told him that she loved him, I do not believe for one second that happened. My daughter was a victim of emotional abuse and was a clever girl. Any communication Holly had with Logan as he murdered her would have only been her desperate attempts to stop him. I will not allow Logan, nor anyone else, to believe for even an instant that Holly was in love with him at the time he murdered her.

"The only time I believe Logan has spoken the truth was when he admitted that he hurt Holly out of anger because she had not been nice to him, he rarely shows emotion, and this further confirmed to me that he was being truthful at that point. If Logan had told the truth from the start he could have saved our family having to go through the trauma of a trial and be able to grieve for Holly sooner.

"The trial process has taken an enormous amount of strength and composure from our family. Logan undoubtedly has his issues, however, is more capable than he has been given credit for. Having to sit through months of listening to various professionals who claimed to have assessed Logan as being unfit to stand trial has been extremely hard to digest. They have made too many allowances for him in this process and at times it has become farcical watching his attempted defence unfold. I understand that the court process has to be fair, but my daughter cannot be afforded this courtesy and is not here because of his actions and his actions alone.

"I love my child so much. My heart aches without her. Holly was caring, funny, energetic and at times outspoken. We have struggled to adjust to life without her, her brothers and sisters are still struggling so much with all of it. Jake my eldest has anxieties about travelling alone as he and Holly travelled everywhere together, he finds it very difficult to talk about her. After Holly died Jake suffered with nose bleeds and began having panic attacks about bleeding to death. Abilee is 12 years old, every night since Holly's death she has taken a photograph of the sunset or night sky and posts it on her social media with a message about Holly. Scarlett has just turned nine, she talks about Holly constantly and at first this was extremely hard to hear. She described how in heaven Holly was riding unicorns and eating marshmallows. Both girls have created a picture wall in their bedrooms with pictures of Holly. Do children ever come to terms with the loss of a sibling? How do they grieve for the lost birthdays, Christmas days, celebrations? How do they move forward without their best friend? The loss of their sister will stay with them forever.

"All love begins and ends with motherhood, and I am a mother that has had a part of my heart brutally ripped from me. I should have hugged her longer, or tighter, and I will never be given that chance again. It has been taken from me. The pain is indescribable. As a mother who has lost a child, I would hate anyone else to go through the turmoil that our family has suffered and as such I have thrown myself into raising money for emergency bleed boxes, if we can help someone suffering a catastrophic bleed and stop another family going through what we have experienced makes it so worthwhile."

Micala added: "Holly’s case has been labelled as ‘knife crime’ but making sure that people know the truth about her case is one of my goals. I firmly believe that teenagers should be taught about healthy relationships in schools and domestic abuse services offered at a younger age, maybe then Holly would have recognised the red flags earlier and had access to other services that could have helped her. I don’t want Holly to become another statistic, there is so much media coverage of how many women are killed each year by men, it almost normalises it for young men like Logan. Things have got to change.

"We will never know Holly as an adult, this year she should have been collecting her GCSE results and preparing for a prom. We will never get to see her walk down the aisle or meet her children. Logan has taken away her future and ours, we will never get to see Holly grow into a beautiful young woman. By the time Logan has served his sentence he will still be able to start a family and enjoy his life, everything that Holly can’t do because of his mindless, selfish actions. He stabbed my daughter 36 times, in her head, chest and back. The pain she must have suffered breaks my heart to even imagine.

"It was more than just one life lost that night because our hearts also stopped. Holly is missed beyond words can ever describe but will never be forgotten."

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