UK
Postman who murdered and beheaded girlfriend jailed for at least 23 years
Warning: This article contains details readers may find distressing.
An “evil” postman who moaned about being lonely hours before he severed his girlfriend’s head and tried to dismember her body has been jailed for a minimum of 23 years.
Ewan Methven murdered 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn in the flat they shared in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, in November last year.
The High Court in Glasgow heard the killer dumped his partner’s body parts in their hallway and failed to call emergency services for two days.
Phoenix Spencer-Horn was murdered in November
The 27-year-old then bought drugs, watched pornography and sent sickening texts to Phoenix’s worried mum pretending she was still alive.
Phoenix was stabbed 20 times – including 10 times in the face – using three knives in an attack that unfolded after she returned from her waitressing job in Lanarkshire.
The 21-year-old had described Methven as her “soulmate” on social media, saying in one TikTok video: “Life is so much more beautiful and full of colour with you.”
A few months later she was murdered by the same man she had been in a relationship with for two years.
Ewan Methven was jailed on Monday. Pic: Police Scotland
Methven received a life sentence with at least 23 years behind bars when he retuned to the dock on Monday.
The judge, Lord Matthews, described it as a “dreadful crime”.
He told Methven: “You were a trusted member of her family, but you betrayed that trust and robbed her of life in the cruellest way.
“Not content with what you had done to her, you robbed her of all dignity in death by decapitating her and trying to dismember her in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.”
The pair had been in a relationship for two years
Lord Matthews highlighted victim impact statements supplied by Phoenix’s family and said he had “rarely read such outpourings of grief”.
The judge said: “The way you treated this innocent young woman after her death meant that her family did not even have the comfort of saying goodbye to her.”
He added: “I have this morning seen a letter written by you, but it answers none of the questions which must be plaguing the family. You blame the effect of substances but that is no excuse.”
‘Personification of evil’
Sky News has interviewed the couple’s neighbour who lives directly next door.
Toni Brown, 25, described the horror of discovering what happened.
She said: “I think I stayed out of the house for about a week after that. I couldn’t even sit.
“It’s horrific. It gives me shivers thinking about it. It is crazy to think I stayed next door to a monster like that.
“What scares me the most is knowing she was lay there and I was in here oblivious.”
Neighbour Toni Brown spoke to Sky News
Asked whether she heard any noises or violence around the time of the murder, Ms Brown said: “There was a bad smell in my house in the early hours of the morning she was found.
“There was a bad smell in my kitchen basically where the walls join together.”
Methven’s own defence lawyer told the court that society will see the killer as the “personification of evil”.
When he eventually called 999, he claimed to have suffered a drug-induced blackout during the violent killing.
Ms Spencer-Horn was murdered by the man she once called her ‘soulmate’
Another life lost to gender-based violence
The case has raised questions once again about the growing prevalence of gender-based violence.
Fiona Drouet’s daughter Emily was 18 when she took her own life at university in Aberdeen in 2016, days after being choked and slapped by her ex-boyfriend.
Angus Milligan was later convicted of physical and psychological abuse.
Fiona Drouet’s daughter was a victim of physical abuse from an ex-boyfriend
Ms Drouet, who now campaigns on violence against women across the UK and Ireland, has set up a charity called Emily’s Test in her daughter’s name.
Reacting to the death of Ms Spencer-Horn, Ms Drouet told Sky News: “There is another mother and father that have just been plunged into utter hell.
“Somebody once said to me that if God came to you and said, ‘I am going to give you this beautiful daughter, but you’ll only have her for 18 years and then we need to take her back, would you still want her?’ and I would take those 18 years and go through the pain rather than have nothing.
“Although just now that probably offers no words of comfort for Phoenix’s parents, maybe one day it can.”
If you suspect you are being abused and need to speak to someone, there are people who can help you, including The National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or Women’s Aid online.