Megan Newton

Who was Megan Newton?

18-year-old Megan Newton was born in England. She attended New Castle College, in Stoke-on Trent. Megan was described as a wonderful person, always generous, and always willing to help others. She loved spending time with family and friends, always dedicating time to them and showing them how much she loved them.

Megan Newton was a huge fan of football, playing herself for Stoke Town under-18 ladies team and she dedicated her weekends to coaching Norton Wanderers FC under 7 teams. She was the first person in her family to make it to university; her dream was to become a Sports Therapist or physiotherapist and then apply for a scholarship to do more studying in the United States.

By April 2019, Megan was living alone in a family apartment on Fletcher road, Stoke-on Trent. She also had a job in a ¨Fish and chips¨ place.

A kind act gone wrong

Friday, April 19, 2019, was supposed to be a fun night. Megan finished her shift around 10:20 pm. She went home after to put on some nice clothes and make-up. She was getting together with her friends and wanted to look good. Megan decided to wear a nice dress, high heels, and her beautiful smile. She was excited to show her friends her new tattoo.

The young football coach and her friends started the night at 11:00 pm in a pub and a bit later decided to take the party to a nightclub where they could dance. Around 3 am in the morning, everybody thought it was time to go home, so Megan Newton said goodbye and walked down to the taxi station.

Once there, she recognized a boy that was also at the station, it seemed to be an acquaintance from school. His name was Joseph Trevor, a 19-year-old football player; Trevor seemed distressed so Megan asked him if he was ok. Trevor told her he was scared because he didn’t want his parents to see him under the effects of drugs and alcohol. Trevor also mentioned to Megan that earlier when he was partying with his friends while drinking and doing Ketamine, he got very violent to a point where his own friends had to call the police. He was taken to the police station where he calmed down and the police decided to send him home with the promise of seeing him the next morning. For all of these things, Trevor was scared. Megan then, so kind-hearted as she usually was, offered him to stay the night in her apartment so he could grab some sleep and see his parents the next morning. He accepted and they took a taxi to Megan’s housing complex.

Unfortunately, the next morning one of Megan’s neighbors found a set of keys and a blood trace that led to Megan’s apartment. When outside of the apartment, he started knocking on the door thinking maybe somebody inside was hurt. He proceeded to open the door with the keys and got into the apartment only to find Megan’s naked body covered in blood, in her own bed. He immediately called 911 but they were not able to save her, she was already dead. Megan’s dreams of a career in physiotherapy were over.

The Crime Description

Once inside the apartment, Joseph took Megan Newton into the bedroom,  where he raped her and strangled her until she was unconscious, he then went to her kitchen to grab a knife to later stab her nine times in her back and neck. The stabbing was so strong it penetrated Megan’s chest and both lungs. Megan Newton bled out to death.

Joseph Trevor

19-year-old Joseph Trevor was a semi-professional football player that had attended the same school as Megan in Stoke-on Trent. They shared a passion for sports and sports therapy but weren’t really friends. When he was 15 years old, Joseph had been accused of raping a little girl but for some reason, the charges were dropped. The news was all over Joseph’s school and neighborhood which is why kids in school started calling him “Paedo” and “Rolf Harris”, an Australian host accused and convicted of raping four kids.

On the night of April 30, 2019. Trevor had been taken to the police station for his erratic and violent behavior when partying with his friends. When cops searched him they seized a bad of white powder that was later revealed to be ketamine.

Megan Newton’s Murder Investigation

Police first noticed that whoever killed Megan Newton had to be somebody she knew, because there were no forced entries.

After having this in mind, their next investigation step was to check CCTV from the areas where Megan had last been seen. They obtained videos from the taxi station, where Megan is seen talking to Trevor and leaving in the same taxi.

Later they checked Megan’s apartment building cameras, where they found the recording of Megan getting into the building and shortly after her apartment with Trevor at 3:45 am. 90 minutes later, the same cameras show Trevor leaving the apartment alone.

He returns to the apartment shortly after to grab Megan’s keys. When he finally makes his way out and throws the keys in the parking lot; the cameras in that area show Trevor’s hands covered in blood.  Since Trevor had been taken to the station the night before, police had his information and they were able to capture him just a few hours later.

When questioning Trevor and after telling him they had videos of everything, he couldn’t do more than accept his crime. Trevor’s story was that after getting into Megan’s apartment, they had consensual sex with him but in the middle of it, his memory went blank. He would stick to this story for ten more months. He claimed it was probably because of the drugs he took earlier that day.

Investigators then went through Trevor’s cell phone to see if he had called or texted somebody. One of the messages that called police attention was the one Trevor sent to his friends confessing the murder. There was also a message to his father telling him he was staying the night with a friend from university. The texts were not much but enough to give police reasons to think Trevor was conscious of his actions at the time of the murder. Joseph Trevor was then charged with First-degree murder plus charges of rape.

Trial

On the first day of the trial, Trevor finally pleaded guilty. He pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one count of murder. Joseph confessed that on the night of April 30, Megan had apologized to him for being part of the group that called him ¨Paedo¨ when they were in school, a name people started using for Trevor when they found out he had been accused of raping a little girl. Just one month before the murder, Joseph Trevor had tried to take his own life because of how depressed he was due to these accusations. So when Megan mentioned the whole thing, it triggered him.

Verdict

After Joseph Trevor pleaded guilty, the 19-year-old killer was sentenced to a minimum term of 21 years and 65 days in prison before he can be considered for parole. Trevor was also placed on the sex offenders list indefinitely. A lot of people, starting with Megan’s family were not happy with the sentence since most thought Trevor was a calculated killer and deserved a life sentence.

Frequently asked questions

Why was Joseph Trevor called ¨Paedo¨ in school?

Because everybody in school believed Trevor had raped a little girl when he was 15 years old. They also called him Rolf Harris.

Why was Trevor released from police custody on April 30, 2019?

It is believed that even when Trevor’s behavior was erratic and police had found a little bag of white powder on him – ketamine- they knew Joseph because his father was a cop and that created sympathy for him to let him go.