Holly Newton’s mother told the court about the impact of the murder

Fifteen-year-old Holly Newton was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend Logan MacPhail in Hexham, Northumberland, in January 2023. This is the victim impact statement her mother, Micala Trussler, gave to Newcastle Crown Court. during the sentence of her murderer.

On Friday, January 27, 2023, our lives changed forever – I kissed my four children goodbye to school and one never came home.

How can parents know when they receive a call from a stranger telling them their daughter has been stabbed?

Those words are still playing over and over in my head.

As we raced to the scene with my two children in the car crying, terrified of what was happening, I couldn’t imagine what we were going to see.

The worst thing happened to me, but I never imagined how horrible the reality would be.

The absolute trauma on my children’s faces when they saw their sister being put in the ambulance is something that will stay with them forever and their condition is beyond words.

I will never be able to get it out of my mind if I stop to see my daughter in the alley or the ambulance, see her eyes open or hear her last words, she knows that her mother is by her side.

I couldn’t even hug or touch him in the hospital, my son was a crime scene, that’s proof.

Logan MacPhail was invited to our house for the weekend and we got to know each other very well.

He was Holly’s first and only boyfriend and it was no surprise that he would fall for a girl like Holly, she was such a caring and thoughtful young woman.

She knew she couldn’t read and would go to the local library to get baby books to help her learn.

Logan is mild-mannered and polite, as a couple they have a typical teenage relationship that turns out to show no red flags until the end.

They have their ups and downs but they have a good time together, I have videos and pictures on my phone of them dancing together in the living room, they look so happy together.

No one would have thought that Logan could do what he has done.

As they grew older, it seemed that Holly was more mature than Logan and that they grew.

I had no idea of ​​the emotional turmoil that Holly was going through trying to end the relationship.

For me this is a classic case of domestic abuse, the law states that I am not allowed to call it because of Holly’s age but I strongly believe that Logan thinks that he cannot have Holly then no one can, he wants it so much. with him.

Holly told me that Logan had accessed her social media account and somehow knew her password, she had told him to stop but convinced her he had software that meant he could hack into her account.

They use threats of self-harm as emotional blackmail; Holly had wanted to end the previous relationship but was afraid of the consequences.

Logan stalked my son, creeping around my house at night sending photos to my son. We wouldn’t know if he had a knife at the time, but listening to him try to trick my son into opening the door or window was terrifying.

On January 27, he left home and went to school with a knife, he traveled by public transport among other families and children with a knife in his pocket.

Watching the CCTV of him arriving in Hexham and wearing a face mask and taking a route through the back streets shows that he knew exactly what he was doing, focused only on finding Holly.

It chills me to the core watching people hide in the trolley park and doorways watching and waiting for him, he blissfully did not see that there.

He knew exactly what he wanted, he didn’t have any things to return, that was the reason he had tried to see her.

During the trial, Holly has been described by him as a disrespectful and unfaithful girlfriend who had multiple boyfriends, this could not be further from the truth.

Holly is a quiet girl who likes to dance and meet strangers.

They have a strong sense of what is right and wrong.

The only time I believed Logan was telling the truth was when he admitted that he hurt Holly because he was angry because he didn’t like her, he rarely shows emotion, and this further confirms that he was honest​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If Logan had told the truth from the beginning, he could have saved our family the trauma of trying and grieving for Holly sooner.

The trial process has taken an enormous amount of strength and calm from our family.

Logan definitely has his issues, but he’s more capable than he lets on.

Having spent months listening to various professionals, who claimed to think Logan was unfit to try, was hard to digest.

He has made a lot of allowances for him in this process and sometimes it is funny to watch his defensive efforts.

I understand that the court process should be fair, but my daughter cannot afford this courtesy because of her actions and behavior alone.

I love my son so much my heart aches without him.

Holly is caring, funny, energetic and sometimes outspoken.

We have struggled to adjust to life without him, my sister is still struggling so much with everything.

As a mother who has lost a child, I would hate others to go through the turmoil that our family has suffered and as such I have thrown myself into raising money for the emergency blood box.

If we can help someone who is suffering and stop another family from going through what we went through, then it makes all the difference.

Holly’s case has been branded a knife crime but making sure people know the truth about her case is one of my goals.

I believe that if teenagers are taught about healthy relationships at school and domestic abuse services are offered at a young age, maybe Holly will recognize the red flags earlier and gain access to other services that can help her.

I don’t want Holly to be another statistic, there is so much media coverage of how many women are killed every year by men, almost normalizing it for a young man like Logan.

Things have to change.

As a family we would like to thank those who intervened and tried to help Holly as much as possible.

We will never know Holly as an adult, this year she has to collect her GCSE results and prepare for prom.

We will never get to see her walk down the aisle or meet her children.

Logan has taken his joy out of planning for the future and watching 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 life, all of which Holly cannot do because of her selfish, selfish thoughts.

He stabbed my daughter 36 times, in the head, chest and back. This wasn’t just to hurt Holly, it was to kill her. The pain she must have endured breaks my heart to imagine.

More than one life was lost that night because our hearts also stopped.

Holly is missed beyond words can describe but will never be forgotten.