Teenager guilty of murder of 15-year-old girl in Hexham

A 17-year-old boy has been found guilty of the murder of 15-year-old Holly Newton, who was stabbed to death in January 2023.

Holly had complained that the boy was “stalking” her hours before she was repeatedly stabbed in an alleyway in Hexham, Northumberland.

The boy, who was 16 at the time and whose identity has not been established, admitted manslaughter before the trial at Newcastle Crown Court but denied murder.

Speaking to the BBC, Holly's mother Micala Trussler said: “He ruined our lives and he took Holly's life.”

The jury also found the teenager guilty of intentionally causing injury to a second victim who came to Holly's aid.

The verdict will be announced during a two-day hearing before the same court, which begins on October 31.

The boy, who has been diagnosed with autism, initially told the court that his mind was “blank” at the time of the attack and that he had actually tried to take his own life.

He then admitted that he had attacked her out of angerbefore backtracking and claiming he never intended to hurt her.

After the verdict was announced, Judge Justice Hilliard invited Mrs Trussler to address the jury.

He said: “The focus in this trial was on the defendant and you only heard his opinion about Holly.”

“Before you leave, I want you to get a better picture of her and her character.”

As Holly's mother left the stands, she described how much her “beautiful child” loved her family, sports, animals and dancing.

She said the pupil at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham had “grown up into a happy teenager who would do anything for anyone”.

She added: “At school, Holly was a quiet student who just did her work.

“Her teachers never gave her a bad report.

“When Holly started [at the school]she felt like she belonged. She had such a close circle of friends where everyone was always there for each other.”

Ms Trussler told the court that Holly's cat Maxi meowed every morning to be let into her room.

“Maxi still does that to this day. However, Holly is not there to open the door.”

Mrs Trussler later told the court: “To think that Holly should have been collecting her GCSE exam results last week but instead our little girl's future was cruelly taken away from her.”

The defendant, who had followed the trial via video link from a secure unit, did not visibly react to the jury foreman's guilty verdicts.

The trial said the killer followed Holly after she graduated from high school on January 27, 2023, and then stabbed her to death in an alley next to a pizzeria at around 5 p.m. (CEST).

Holly suffered 36 knife wounds and the blade broke during the minute-long attack, which only ended when two passersby pulled the boy away.

Another boy who tried to wrestle the killer away from Holly was stabbed four times in the leg and shoulder.

Mrs Trussler had arranged a meeting with police that evening to discuss her concerns for Holly's safety after the boy turned up uninvited at her home in Haltwhistle the previous night.

She told the BBC that Holly had “begged” her to allow her to go into town after school on the day of her murder rather than come home to the police, so the meeting was postponed until later that evening.

“Ultimately the biggest mistake of my life,” she said.

Ms Trussler described feeling as if she was “frozen” while the “whole world was spinning around her”.

“You look at people and think: 'How can you carry on with your life, my daughter died?'

“But life must go on. What else can you do?”

The girl's stepfather, Lee Trussler, said her death “haunts” him.

Outside court, Lynsey Colling, of the North East Crown Prosecution Service, said the organisation had faced a “significant challenge” in the early stages of the case in proving the defendant's fitness to stand trial, which had been raised as an issue by the defence.

Psychologists had prepared independent reports that convinced the court that the boy was actually capable of making a confession and standing trial, she said.