'Holly was a crime scene...I was unable to even hug her'

THE mother of a 15-year-old girl murdered by her obsessed ex-boyfriend has spoken of her anguish at being unable to touch her in hospital because she was a "crime scene".

- Paul Jeeves

Logan MacPhail, now 17, knifed Holly Newton 36 times in an alleyway after stalking her for an hour through a town centre last January.

He denied murder but admitted manslaughter, claiming he blacked out, but was convicted following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

Earlier this month, the judge lifted a reporting restriction preventing the media from identifying the teenager.

Holly's grieving mother, Micala Trussler, made a moving victim statement at the start of a two-day sentencing hearing yesterday, watched by MacPhail via a videolink.

Enormity

The mother of four said she raced to the scene of the tea-time attack in Hexham, Northumberland, frightened of what she would find - but was met by a more horrific scenario than she had imagined.

Micala told the hearing: "The enormity and severity cannot be put into words.