Infamous killer’s desperate bid for freedom
A mixed martial arts fighter who bludgeoned his girlfriend to death in an ice-fuelled rage before dumping her body in bushland will remain behind bars after a court dismissed his bid to overturn his conviction or be freed early.
Sayle Kenneth Newson was sentenced to spend 27 years in jail for the gruesome murder of Carly McBride, whose disappearance sparked a missing person’s case that shocked the state nearly a decade ago.
Ms McBride disappeared from Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Region in September 2014 when she was killed by Newson; however, her body wasn’t found for another 22 months when two bushwalkers stumbled upon her grave in bushland at Owens Gap.
Newson was found guilty of murder by a jury and in December 2021 was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
However, he appealed his conviction and sentence on several grounds, including that the jury ought to have been allowed to consider an alternative verdict of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday dismissed his appeal against both his conviction and sentence.
Ms McBride, a 31-year-old mother of two, was last seen at Muswellbrook about 2pm on September 30, 2014.
She was last seen walking towards a McDonald’s and when her body was discovered in August 2016, she was still wearing the same clothes from that day.
Her body was discovered in a shallow grave in bushland, 25m from the road, with multiple fractures to her skull and spine.
At the time of her death, Ms McBride had been dating Newson for two months after they met at a drug rehabilitation centre.
In his sentencing remarks in December 2021, Justice Mark Ierace said their relationship was marked by Newson’s jealousy of Ms McBride’s “friendships with other men”.
The court was told that he sent text messages to her a month before her murder saying “I am violent wen in this mood and u have no idea bout this part” and “Open your legs n shut ur neck”.
She suffered blunt force injuries at the hands of Newson, who was trained in mixed martial arts, including 23 fractures to her skull, 13 fractures to her torso as well as fractured ribs and spine.
Newson told the police that he denied any involvement in Ms Newson’s killing but admitted he was affected by methamphetamine on the day of her death.
He told police in one interview: “I was high on ice … that’s reality of it. I’d been up two days before (Ms McBride) went missing.”
Newson was sentenced to 27 years in jail with a non-parole period of 19 years and nine months.
He will first be eligible for release on parole in August 2038.
