On a cold, dark evening, I find myself climbing the stairwell of a block of flats in Forfar – I’m looking to track down Angela Newlands.
The Courier this week launches a new podcast, Who Killed Annalise?
It explores the unsolved murder of Annalise Johnstone, knifed to death at the Maggie Wall witch monument in Dunning on May 10, 2018.
Ms Newlands was acquitted of killing Annalise a year later, along with the 22-year-old traveller’s brother Jordan Johnstone – her boyfriend at the time.
Questions for Angela Newlands
Nearly six years on from the trial, I have several questions for her:
- How did she feel when she was found not guilty of murder?
- What did she remember about the events of that day and the hours she spent with Annalise and Mr Johnstone?
- Would she like to respond to the allegations Mr Johnstone made about her in court and in an interview with The Courier for the podcast?
But there was no answer at her door and I received a text from a colleague just as I was about to leave.
Ms Newlands was going to be in court in Dundee – tomorrow.
I’m in the gallery as her case is called and she suddenly appears on a screen above the courtroom.
I soon hear the 35-year-old mum-of-five has issues with substances and has been in an abusive relationship.
Wearing a grey prison jumper, and appearing from HMP Grampian, she calmly pleads guilty to 17 charges of theft and fraud between August 2022 and May 11, 2024.
In Forfar and Kirriemuir, Angus, she targeted men as old as 85 by posing as a struggling single mother.
She stole wallets, credit cards and eight cockapoo puppies, as well as breaking into cars.
‘Abusive relationship’
Her solicitor Pauline Cullerton said: “She is embarrassed and ashamed of her behaviour and she has advised the social worker that the victims were people that she knew.
“She said she did not intend to cause harm to the individuals and I think it’s fair to say the offences are down to her substance misuse.
“At the time, she was in an abusive relationship and her partner was pestering her to keep providing him with money for both of them.”
In 2022, a former partner of Ms Newlands was jailed for three years after barging into her home and battering her with a wooden pole.
She was later found by police lying in a pool of blood with her skull exposed through a huge gash on her head.
Two years earlier, she escaped a jail term for failing to carry out a community payback order after the sheriff was told she was due to give birth to her fifth child.
Sheriff Gillian Wade said Ms Newlands had been given a “number of opportunities”.
She added: “I have little confidence you will continue to comply with those trying their very best to help you.
“I have to take account of the fact you are pregnant with another child.
“I do not necessarily think a custodial setting is the best place for that child to come into the world.”
‘You invented hard-luck stories’
Ms Newlands had admitted driving while banned and with no insurance in Perth in the summer of 2018.
She also admitted trying to pervert the course of justice by lying to the police – pretending to be her sister – when she was caught driving the wrong way on a one-way street.
The Courier has tried to reach Ms Newlands for comment.
She has never spoken publicly about the Annalise Johnstone case but her lawyers claimed she was forced to flee Scotland due to threats in the wake of the trial.
Speaking last month, as he sentenced her following her theft and fraud conviction, Sheriff George Way said: “You invented hard-luck stories to deceive members of the public and you stole from them, you took defenceless puppies from a breeding kennel and fortunately they were recovered unharmed.
“The social work report speaks to your insight and need to become free of illicit substances through rehabilitation but you have a history of failing to comply with community-based orders.
“That combined with the, frankly, despicable crimes, that makes a custodial sentence inevitable.”
Who Killed Annalise? – a new podcast from The Courier – explores the unsolved murder of the 22-year-old traveller.
It features interviews with investigators, witnesses and those closest to Annalise and Jordan Johnstone, some of whom are speaking publicly for the first time.
We told this week how Mr Johnstone has changed his account of what happened to the weapon used to kill his sister.
Last year we revealed police followed up on new information relating to Annalise’s death.
You can listen to the full series, ad free, by downloading The Courier app.
Subscribers to The Courier will be the first to receive new episodes, while the series is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
