Disturbing CCTV shows moments before Megan Newton raped and murdered in own home
18 February 2020, 21:13
Disturbing footage captures the final moments before Megan Newton was raped and murdered by a school acquaintance in her own home.
Ms Newton, 18, offered school friend Joseph Trevor a place to stay after he was too drunk and high on drugs to go home to his parent's house.
Hours later, she was found strangled and stabbed in her bedsit on Fletcher Road, Stoke-on-Trent in April last year.
On what was to be the first day of his trial on Monday, Trevor admitted murder and two counts of rape at Stafford Crown Court.
He was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years.
Judge Michael Chambers QC said Trevor carried out a "brutal and sustained attack, conducted in a most callous way in her own home".
Joseph Trevor, now 19, can be seen on CCTV calmly walking inside Ms Newton's flat at 3.45am.
Only two hours later, the same camera captures the killer slowly leaving with a blood-stained arm before discarding her front door key in a car park.
Stafford Crown Court heard that Trevor had been arrested earlier in the evening after door staff at a nightclub found a bag of ketamine on him.
But he was released by police as he was "unfit" for interview, the judge said.
The court heard an allegation of oral rape was made against Trevor when he was aged 15 but it was never prosecuted.
Opening the Crown's case, Adrian Keeling QC said: "She (Megan) had invited him back as an act of kindness, because he got so drunk on drink and drugs he could not face going home to his parents.
"He raped her, strangled her unconscious and then stabbed her in the back eight times."
"He left her naked on the bed," he added.
Mr Keeling said it had been by chance the two met that night while out at the same nightclub in Newcastle-under Lyme.
Witnesses described Trevor as appearing "fine", but also "quite annoying, loud and drunk", on one occasion "slumped over a female friend" during the evening.
Sports coach Ms Newton had been planning to go to university to become a sports therapist, with hopes of a scholarship in the United States.
When the nightclub closed, Ms Newton and Trevor, described in court as "passing friends" at school, found themselves at the same taxi rank.
Trevor, telling friends his parents "would go mad" if he arrived home in his drunken state, was trying to find a place to sleep for the night.
Mr Keeling said: "It was Megan Newton who offered him a bed for the night.
"It was not unusual for her to offer to help.
"It was a typical act of kindness by her but one that cost her her life."
