- https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4783818.man-denies-murder-girl-18-stabbed-death-burnley-park/
A TEENAGER was repeatedly stabbed and beaten to death in Burnley's Towneley Park, a court has heard.
Former Haslingden High School pupil Louise Evans was led to the spot by Anthony Wood, 21, and Matthew Maw, 19, with whom she shared a Burnley hostel.
A witness told the court how she heard a "horrible, piercing scream."
followed by Maw asking if there was a brick available.
And she was murdered after Wood had repeatedly complained about her 'doing his head in' by being noisy during a drinking session, the court heard.
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During the first day of a two-week trial at Preston Crown Court the jury was told that Maw had pleaded guilty to the murder, but Wood, 21, denies the same charge in planning and encouraging the brutal assault.
The trio had lived together for around two weeks in the Eizabeth Street Project hostel before the attack in the early hours of July 21.
They were part of a group of youngsters who had been on a drinking session the evening before.
Wood was said to be annoyed with Miss Evans, who had Asperger's syndrome, because she was being 'loud' and 'bouncing' around, the court heard.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Louise Blackwell QC, told the jury they will hear from a number of witnesses, with differing accounts of events.
Two of them claimed Wood told them that he would kill Miss Evans if she carried on with her beaviour but they assumed he was joking, she said.
After drinking in a group of around 10 people at the canalside, those who lived at the hostel returned to the building to meet the 11pm curfew.
However, five of them, including Miss Evans, Maw and Wood, were refused entry because they had broken the no-alcohol rule, Miss Blackwell said.
Wood was then said to have grabbed a knife from his room and placed it in his bag with food before leaving the hostel for the night, the court heard.
He led the group to a disused bowling alley close by, known locally as 'The Rubbles' where they intended to stay the night.
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But when the group's attempts to gain entry to the building failed he guided them through the unlit Towneley Park to an area with thick undergrowth and vegetation that he knew well.
The prosecutor said: "Once again Anthony Wood was getting cross with Louise because she was getting naughty. He said she was 'doing his head in'.
"He again confided in members of the group that he was 'going to kill her tonight'.
"It is the prosecution's case that he took the knife with him intending it to be used on Louise Evans.
"She was led to a quiet and secluded spot. Having been led there by agreement, Matthew Maw attacked her first with a knife and then with a large piece of wood.
"She died of multiple injuries."
The court heard that none of the group saw the fatal attack but some had heard screams, thuds and crushing noises come from the area.
Nineteen-year-old Tracey Parkinson, who lived at the hostel and had known the trio for around two weeks, told the court that she had not got on well with Maw but that she and Wood had got on like 'a house on fire.'
When Wood told her he was going to kill Miss Evans and asked if she was going to 'gag' the victim, she thought he was joking, she said.
But she told the hearing that she later heard a "horrible, piercing scream" followed by Maw asking if there was a brick available.
The hearing was told that Wood was heard to reply: "No, if there was I would do it myself."
Miss Parkinson said she shone the light of her mobile phone on the pair and saw them 'grinning' as Miss Evans was laid on the ground with blood all over her face.
Another witness told detectives that he heard Maw scream before he heard a 'crushing sound' and up to 30 large thuds, the court heard.
Accompanied by her boyfriend Jason Hardacre, 22, and a 17-year-old, Miss Parkinson said she went to get help and called an ambulance.
The police were called and paramedics arrived to find Miss Evans with multiple slash and stab wounds, with her throat lacerated and front teeth missing.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Under cross-examination from Patrick Cosgrove QC, she admitted not wearing her glasses on the night of the attack despite having bad eyesight without them.
She also said she was drunk and admitted smoking cannabis on the night in question despite having denied it earlier.
The court also heard how she told a police officer at the scene that she did not think the attack had been carried out by any of the people she had been with, including Wood because 'they wouldn't hurt' Miss Evans.
A post-mortem examination showed she suffered 39 injuries to her neck and head, with additional wounds to her chest and arms.
A Home Office pathologist and consultant neuropathologist concluded the serious and extensive facial fractures would have led to asphyxia, Miss Blackwell said.
The likely cause of death was from inhaling her own blood but she was likely to have been rendered unconscious at some point by the heavy blows, the hearing was told.
Wood told police that he had not threatened Miss Evans at any stage and played no part in her death.
Miss Evans lived in Colne, where she attended Park High School, until she was 14 before moving to Haslingden and then Burnley.
Proceeding.
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8475281.stm
Pair jailed for 'savage' murder in Burnley park
Anthony Wood
Wood got his accomplice to do his "dirty work", the judge said
Two men have been jailed for the frenzied stabbing of a teenage girl, who they left to choke to death on her own blood in a Lancashire park.
Louise Evans, 18, who had Asperger's syndrome, was stabbed so hard in the attack in Burnley that the knife broke in two, Preston Crown Court heard.
Anthony Wood, 21, from Burnley, was found guilty of murder and jailed for at least 22 years and 183 days.
Matthew Maw, 18, admitted murder and must serve 18 years and 63 days.
Their teenage victim suffered 39 head and neck injuries in the assault in Towneley Park in July 2009.
Slashed throat
Her killers, who had befriended her at a homeless hostel they all shared in the town, led her to a secluded spot by a disused bandstand and "brutally" attacked her, the court heard.
Ms Evans' throat was slashed and she was repeatedly bludgeoned with a branch.
Louise Evans
Louise Evans was stabbed and beaten
On sentencing, Judge Anthony Russell QC told the court that Maw, also from Burnley, had inflicted most of the physical violence but Wood had persuaded him to do his "dirty work" for him.
He told the them: "You were prepared to go beyond all basic moral boundaries and act in a fashion referred to as feral violence - completely wild behaviour inflicted on a vulnerable victim for no reason at all.
"The sanctity of human life appears to mean nothing to you. This was a savage attack, carried out relentlessly.
'Loved dearly'
"Louise must have suffered terribly because she did not die instantaneously.
"The only word that even begins to describe your conduct is 'wicked'."
They had been part of a group of youngsters who had been on a drinking session the evening before the attack.
Matthew Maw
Matthew Maw admitted murder
Ms Evans, from Haslingden, been living in the hostel because she wanted to be independent, her adopted parents said in a statement read to the court.
She had complex needs but was "special" and "loved dearly," Louise and Jeff Evans said.
"We are lost and empty and in disbelief that somebody could do this.
"There is a void in our lives that will never be filled."
Speaking after the case, Det Insp Paul Broxson, from Lancashire Police, said his thoughts were with Ms Evans' family, who had lost their daughter in "such tragic circumstances."
He said: "I am very pleased with the sentence which reflects the horrific and sustained nature of this attack.
"As for Maw and Wood, this was a particularly brutal and cowardly assault, planned and carried out together, and they fully deserve their sentence."
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1990 - Yes, date unknown
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