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Wednesday July 16, 2025

Monster next door: Postman killed, beheaded girlfriend, and faked texts

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Ewan Methven stabbed, beheaded, and dismembered 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn in East Kilbride

A Scottish postman who murdered and beheaded his girlfriend has been jailed for life, with a minimum sentence of 23 years.

Ewan Methven, 27, stabbed Phoenix Spencer-Horn, 21, twenty times in their East Kilbride flat last November, before decapitating her and attempting to dismember her body. Instead of calling for help, Methven watched pornography, took drugs, and sent fake messages to Phoenix’s worried mother, pretending she was still alive.

Sentencing him at the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Matthews said Methven had “betrayed” Phoenix’s trust and stripped her of all dignity. “You were a trusted member of her family. You robbed her of life in the cruellest way,” he told the killer. “Not content with that, you desecrated her body in an attempt to defeat justice.”

The brutal killing unfolded after Phoenix returned home from her waitressing job in South Lanarkshire. Three knives were used in the attack, with ten of the stab wounds inflicted to her face.

For two days, Methven left her mutilated remains in the hallway of their shared flat. Her body was discovered after he eventually called emergency services, claiming he’d blacked out during a drug episode. The court heard he was aware enough to try to cover his tracks — even sending messages to Phoenix’s mother pretending she was safe and well.

Phoenix had publicly described Methven as her “soulmate” on TikTok just months before the murder. The pair had been in a relationship for two years. At sentencing, victim impact statements from her grieving family left the judge visibly moved. “I have rarely read such outpourings of grief,” said Lord Matthews.

Methven showed no emotion in court as he was handed a life sentence.

Phoenix’s neighbour Toni Brown, 25, who lived next door, recalled the chilling aftermath. “There was a bad smell in my house in the early hours,” she told Sky News. “I stayed out of the flat for a week. It gives me shivers knowing a monster like that was next door.”

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She added: “What scares me the most is knowing she was lying there and I was in here, oblivious.”

Methven’s defence admitted society would rightly see him as “the personification of evil”. Forensic analysis found Phoenix’s body in an advanced state of decomposition when discovered, with her remains too damaged for her parents to say a final goodbye.

The case has reignited discussion over the rise in gender-based violence in the UK.

Fiona Drouet, whose own daughter Emily died by suicide in 2016 after being physically abused by an ex-boyfriend, told Sky News: “Another mother and father have been plunged into utter hell.” Now a campaigner against violence towards women, Drouet runs a charity named EmilyTest in her daughter’s memory.

“Although now it may offer no comfort, one day Phoenix’s parents may find strength in the love they had for her,” she said. “I would take those 18 years again with my daughter, even knowing the pain.”

Phoenix’s death is the latest in a series of horrific domestic homicides in Scotland and across the UK. Campaigners are urging for more early intervention to prevent intimate partner violence.

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