Teenager pleads guilty to Burnley woman's murder (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Teenager pleads guilty to Burnley woman's murder

5:30pm Monday 7th December 2009 in

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A TEENAGER has today pleaded guilty to the murder of 18-year-old Louise Bethany Evans in a Burnley park.

Matthew David Peter Maw, 19, of Elizabeth Street, Burnley, admitting killing the former Haslingden High School and Accrington and Rossendale College student ahead of a trial which was due to start at Preston Crown Court.

Miss Evans suffered knife injuries and head wounds during an attack in Towneley Park, Burnley, on July 21.

A second defendant, Anthony Wood, 21, also of Elizabeth Street, denies murder and will go on trial tomorrow.

Both men were remanded in custody and Maw will be sentenced at a later date.

Miss Evans suffered multiple knife injuries and head wounds during a late night gathering in secluded woodland yards from a pitch-and-putt golf course behind Towneley Hall.

Officers were alerted by the ambulance service at around 1.40am.

The teenager was still alive when a police officer arrived shortly before paramedics.

However, she was unable to speak and stopped breathing shortly afterwards.

Despite efforts to resuscitate Miss Evans, she was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Miss Evans had been living at Calico’s Elizabeth Street Project hostel in Burnley and had previously been in foster care.

Miss Evans attended Park High School, in Colne, until the age of 14 before moving to Haslingden High School.

After leaving school, she attended a childcare course at Accrington and Rossendale College from September 2007 until November 2008.