An obsessive teen stalker who followed his ex-girlfriend through a town for an hour before stabbing her to death in a dark alleyway has been jailed for 17 years.

Jealous Logan MacPhail stalked Holly Newton, 15, on her way home from school as she went shopping with friends.

MacPhail travelled 90 minutes from his school 25 miles away in Gateshead to pursue as she left Queen Elizabeth High School at 3.30pm in Hexham, Northumberland. He stabbed her 26 times in a dark alleyway, inflicting 10 further slash injuries.

After MacPhail had turned up at Holly's family house, an arrangement was made for Holly to go with her mother to discuss the teen stalking her daughter with police after school the next day.

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But Holly wanted to go out with friends and persuaded her mother, Micala Trussler, to reschedule the meeting for later that evening. Speaking during MacPhail's trial, Ms Trussler described the decision as 'the biggest mistake of my life'.

During the trial it was revealed 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.

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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.