Teenager's murderer jailed for life after frenzied stabbing

Nathan Costello was told he must serve almost 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release.

Judge Penny Moreland described the attack as brutal as she jailed the 31-year-old for murderous attack in February last year.

"You and Taylor Black had been friends: you had fallen out a couple of years earlier at a Christmas party at your flat and you had decided you no longer wanted him to come to your flat," she said.

Nathan Costello

"You were described in evidence as someone who held a grudge; the evidence showed that after falling out with Taylor, and up to the time you killed him, you had from time to time said that you hated him and his family and that you would kill him if you ever got your hands on him."

The horrendous injuries Taylor Black suffered were outlined to the jury during the two-week trial and the judge pointed out the 'viciousness' of the fatal attack for the length of sentence.

She said: "That attack included a stab wound to the chest, which passed through Taylor’s heart and liver into his stomach. That was a fatal wound, but not immediately a wound which incapacitated Taylor: he stood up, and moved to the front door of the flat.

"There you attacked him again. At some point during this attack, you stabbed him in the head with such force that the tip of the knife broke off in his skull: after that, you stabbed him in the head with very severe force, penetrating his skull with the knife after the tip had been broken off, through his brain.

"The pathologist described the knife as passing almost from one side to the other through the brain. After you inflicted this injury, the knife remained embedded in Taylor’s head."

Jurors had heard how Costello claimed to have little memory of the attack and maintained his defence was 'diminished responsibility'.

The judge told Costello that the jury did not believe that the balance of his mind was affected at the time of the murder.

Taylor Black

She added: "As well as the suffering you caused to Taylor before you killed him, I have heard in the statement read by his mother Lyndsey of the terrible grief that she suffers after losing her son, and the sadness and pain of Taylor’s grandmother, and brother, and other family members. No sentence that the court can impose can help them in their hurt."