Schoolboy who stabbed ex-girlfriend to death named as Logan MacPhail

A schoolboy who stalked his ex-girlfriend before murdering her in a frenzied knife attack has been named for the first time today.

Trial judge Mr Justice Hilliard ruled that Logan MacPhail - now 17 but aged 16 at the time of the murder last year - should be identified in the public interest, lifting an order put in place to protect minors, the Mirror reports. It comes weeks before the teenager is due to be sentenced for the murder which he was found guilty of in August.

His victim, Holly Newton, 15, had complained about the obsessive behaviour of MacPhail just hours before he repeatedly stabbed her in an alleyway. She was left with 36 injuries inflicted in little more than a minute on January 27 last year.

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MacPhail travelled 90 minutes from his school 25 miles away in Gateshead to pursue Holly as she left Queen Elizabeth High School at 3.30pm in Hexham, Northumberland. MacPhail was captured on CCTV, his face covered with a scarf, speaking to Holly at a bus stop just moments before he killed her.

The Crown Prosecution Service also released photos of him boarding a bus from his hometown of Gateshead to travel to Hexham on the day of the murder.

Wearing a black puffa jacket, black cap, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, the 6in knife was in the bag on his back. He boards at 1.41pm and is seen looking around as he gets off the No 10 bus from the MetroCentre in Hexham bus station, arriving at 3.13pm.

He waits around outside Holly's school to see her leaving at 3.30pm with another boy. He follows her for around an hour before he asks to speak to her in a nearby alleyway. He then inflicted the blows in an alleyway in the Priestpopple area.

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

MacPhail travelled 40 miles from his home in Birtley, Gateshead, to hang around outside her house in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, the evening before the murder, with police eventually locating him at 1am after his mum reported her concern for his welfare.

He had been outside of Holly's home in Haltwhistle, Northumberland. Lifting the order today, Mr Justice Hillier said: "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."

David Brooke KC, prosecuting at MacPhail's trial, said the teenager deliberately went to Hexham that day, followed Holly around the town centre and was "deeply unhappy" that their 18-month relationship was over.

He lied about his whereabouts in messages to a friend of Holly on the day of the murder, to hide that he was in Hexham.The prosecution said MacPhail was "jealous" that she was with a new boy and his relationship with Holly had ended days before the killing.

Holly's parents said their daughter's killing should be classed as a domestic violence offence, rather than a knife crime.

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".

Holly's mum Micala Trussler told how her daughter had "begged" her to let her go into town after school on the day of her murder rather than come home to meet the police about the stalking, so the meeting was rescheduled for later that evening. "In the end, the biggest mistake of my life," she said. "He has ruined our lives and he took Holly's."

Speaking outside court after MacPhail was found guilty of murder in August, she said: "To think she should have been receiving her GCSE results last week. Instead our baby girl's future was taken away from her. No result will ever bring our beautiful girl back."

Holly's step-father Lee Trussler said he was "haunted" by her death. MacPhail claimed his mind was "blank" at the time of the attack and he had intended to kill himself with the knife. He then admitted he attacked Holly before backtracking and saying he never intended to hurt her.

He had turned up uninvited at Holly's home in Haltwhistle, Northumberland the evening before the murder, travelling from his home in Birtley, Gateshead. It was agreed Holly should not leave school if he was outside, Newcastle Crown Court was told. Holly texted a friend just hours before the stabbing, telling her MacPhail was "stalking her", jurors heard. In just over a minute, he inflicted 36 knife wounds on Holly, stabbing her 12 times, slashing her 19 times, and causing five "defensive" injuries.

In police interviews, MacPhail told police that her last words to him were 'I love you'. He said: "I know the knife was in my hands and I saw the knife in my hands. So I guess I did do that. I had the knife from home. I had it all week in my bag. I wanted to hurt myself and find a place where no one was around and no one would find me."

"I remember putting it in my wrist and I remember then she said that word and the knife coming down. Then she said she loved me and an adult pinned me down and tried to hit me."

He added: "I was told that I had stabbed her but I cannot remember. My last memory was that I was on top of her. That was when I heard 'I love you', they were the last words I heard. Then my mind went blank." They had met at army cadets around three years earlier. MacPhail, who has autism, was arrested at the scene.

His police interviews were played at a hearing where a judge had to rule if he was mentally capable and fit to enter a plea in his trial. He was found guilty of murder in August, and is sentenced at the end of this month. 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 Holly as a "truly lovely student" who was "quiet, conscientious, helpful and kind".