Megan Newton: Teenager jailed for life for rape and murder of children’s football coach

A 19-year-old man has been jailed for life after admitting to raping and murdering a student who gave him a place to stay after he got too drunk to go home.

Joseph Trevor admitted on Monday to raping, strangling and stabbing 18-year-old Megan Newton to death at her bedsit in Stoke-on-Trent last year.

He was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years shortly after his admission on the first day of his trial, with Judge Michael Chambers describing the case as an “appalling crime”.

It was a “brutal and sustained attack,” Mr Chambers continued, adding that it was “conducted in a most callous way”.

“On any view, she must tragically have suffered, suffered greatly, and suffered for a significant time,” he said.

The court heard how Ms Newton – an aspiring sports therapist – invited Trevor back to her home after a night out in Newcastle-under-Lyme last April because he had gotten intoxicated on drink and drugs and was worried how his parents would react.

Witnesses had described Trevor as being “fine” that night, but that his behaviour had been “quite annoying, loud and drunk” and he was at one point “slumped over a female friend”.

He had also been stopped by police and had a bag of ketamine confiscated from him.

Ms Newton, a children’s football coach who had dreamed of securing a scholarship to study in the US, is said to have offered Trevor a place to sleep in a “typical act of kindness” after they ended up at the same taxi rank when the nightclub they were in had closed.

They were described as “passing friends” at school, with the prosecution adding there was believed to be “no evidence the deceased was sexually attracted” to her killer.

Prosecutor Adrian Keeling QC said: “[Trevor] raped her, strangled her unconscious and then stabbed her in the back eight times” at her home, later saying it was not clear in what order the attack was carried out.

He said she had been strangled unconscious but was “probably alive” when Trevor grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly with blows so strong that some reached her lungs.

CCTV later showed Trevor “remarkably composed” as he left her bedsit, but had to return to collect a key to let himself out of the building.

Trevor’s barrister Tim Hannum told the judge on Monday that his client had tried to take his own life in the weeks before the murder due to “depression” stemming from an earlier allegation of sexual assault.

He had been accused of orally raping a girl in a separate case when he was 15 years old, but it was never pursued.

Mr Hannum said Trevor was remorseful for the “tragedy” in which “two young lives had been destroyed”.

Miss Newton’s father Michael Baggaley said his life had been “ripped apart”.

“How could this happen to such an amazing, caring, kind, loving, funny young lady. This is something I will never understand and get over,” he said.

Mr Baggaley said when he last saw her, the month of her death, Miss Newton had told him: “See you later Dad – love you.”

“The thought of never seeing her beautiful smile or hearing her voice again breaks my heart,” he said.

(c) Sky News 2020: Megan Newton: Teenager jailed for life for rape and murder of children’s football coach