Man jailed for brutal murder of girlfriend

BBC News

14-07-2025

A man has been jailed for life for the brutal murder of his girlfriend at their home in South Lanarkshire.
Ewan Methven admitted the violent attack on 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn at a flat in Glen Lee, East Kilbride, in November 2024.
The 27-year-old had attempted to defeat the ends of justice by covering up the crime and pretending to her family that she was still alive.
Methven was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison at the High Court in Glasgow.
WARNING: This article contains distressing details.
Sentencing Methven, judge Lord Matthews told him he had "rarely heard such outpourings of grief as in the victim impact statements".
He said: "The sadness and deep sense of loss (the family) all feel and continue to feel because of what you did.
"You were a trusted member of her family and you betrayed that trust and robbed her of a life in the cruelest way.
"Not content with what you did to her, you robbed her of all dignity in death by decapitating her and tried to dismember her in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
"The way you treated her after her death meant that her family didn't have the comfort of saying goodbye to her."
In a letter to the judge, Methven wrote: "I know how loved Phoenix was and how she made her family complete. I cannot believe I have taken her from them."
Prosecutors had told the court that Methven choked Ms Spencer-Horn before severing her head and trying to remove her limbs and torso from her body.
Earlier that day, Methven, who worked as a postman, had complained to his girlfriend that her waitress shifts made him "lonely".
She had exchanged messages with her mother, Alison Spencer, at 21:37 saying they were eating dinner.
The couple had been together for two years and met at a family party, the court was told.
Around midnight, a downstairs neighbour heard "a loud noise and hurried footsteps" which coincided with increased activity recorded on a phone app measuring Methven's steps.
He had attacked Ms Spencer-Horn with three knives, stabbing her 20 times. The fatal stab wound was to the chest. There were others in that area as well as to the face and buttocks.
Methven tried to cover up the killing for two days.
He spent the weekend driving Ms Spencer-Horn's red Corsa, scrolling through her phone and searching 170 times for internet pornography, as well as making several attempts to buy cocaine, according to prosecutors.
He also repeatedly pretended in texts to his victim's mother that her daughter was "alive and well".
During an earlier hearing, prosecutor Christopher McKenna said: "The accused murdered his girlfriend, Phoenix Spencer-Horn, in the top-floor flat they shared.
"Late on Saturday 16 November, he strangled her and stabbed her. He dialled 999 but not until 18 November.
"Her mutilated and decapitated body was discovered only on 18 November."
The court heard that Ms Spencer-Horn had seen her mother the day before she was killed and had been in good spirits at work the day she was murdered.
In a 999 call, Methven claimed that the murder happened during a psychotic episode induced by cocaine, alcohol and steroids - which he claimed he thought had been spiked.
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He told the operator he had been "trying to muster up the courage to phone" and that he had "totally blacked out through the thing".
The court heard a delivery driver reported Methven "did not appear to be drunk or under the influence" at 20:00 on the night of the murder.
Police arrived at the flat and found Ms Spencer-Horn's body covered up in the hallway next to two blood-stained knives. Another bloodied knife was found in the bathroom.
Methven was described as "calm".
Upon his arrest, he told officers: "I could not stay here with her like that. I tried to dismember her. I moved her from the bath and put her there."
After he was put in a police cell, he said: "I guess this is what my next 25 years look like."
His KC Tony Graham said Phoenix's family and friends were likely to regard Methven as the "personification of evil".
Following Ms Spencer-Horn's death, a fundraising page amassed thousands of pounds to help with funeral costs.
Her family went on to donate much of it to the Women's Aid charity.
Its Glasgow branch thanked the family, saying the cash would be used to protect others and continue her legacy.
"Her name, Phoenix, now stands for more than loss. It stands for action. For change. For refusing to let her story end in silence," the charity posted on social media.
"This is what it means to rise from the ashes. To take this devastating crime and use it to protect others.
"Phoenix should still be here. But her legacy is one that's lifting others up, and that matters. Turning pain into action. Refusing to let her name be forgotten."