Taylor Fenwick found not guilty of murdering Luke Miller in Tadcaster

Taylor Fenwick has left court a free man after a jury found him not guilty of murder following the death of Luke Miller, 23, outside his flat in Tadcaster.

Mr Miller was allegedly stabbed to death on the morning of December 26.

Mr Fenwick, 22, of Rosemary Court, off Commercial Street, Tadcaster, was charged with murder but denied the allegation.

A jury spent four-and-a-half hours deliberating before delivering the not guilty verdict today (Monday, July 22).

Luke Miller (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Judge Simon Phillips KC told Leeds Crown Court that Mr Fenwick can return to his life following the verdict.

He has been in custody since his arrest, the judge said.

North Yorkshire Police, in December, said a post-mortem revealed that Mr Miller died following a stab wound to the chest.

The prosecution, during the trial, alleged that Mr Fenwick killed Mr Miller by stabbing him with a hunting knife that police found in a street bin near the scene. Mr Fenwick agreed it was his knife but denied stabbing Mr Miller.

'He was my best friend'

He said he would spend more time with Mr Miller than with anyone else in the latter months of 2023.

“He was my best friend,” he said.

Mr Fenwick alleged that he used the hunting knife when hiking or camping. He had originally bought it in a Scarborough shop when he was 18 to skin and prepare animals and fish for eating that he had killed with his grandfather when fishing or shooting.

The jury heard that police analysis of Mr Fenwick’s phone for the month before Mr Miller died showed 22 internet hits involving knives including searches and 13 visits to a website called knifewarehouse.co.uk.

Police in Tadcaster on Boxing Day (Image: Tadcaster Citizen)

Mr Fenwick alleged he couldn’t remember doing the searches or visiting the website, but speculated that he may have been looking for a replacement for a small folding knife he had bought more than a year earlier and which had broken.

Prosecution barrister David Brooke KC, during the trial, accused Mr Fenwick of “concocting” a story about Mr Miller trying to break into Mr Fenwick’s flat in the minutes before he died.

He claimed Mr Fenwick took a hunting knife and a kitchen knife out of his flat to attack Mr Miller and stabbed him to death with the first one.

Mr Fenwick denied all the allegations and said: “It sounds more like a Hollywood film to take two knives out and attack someone. I can’t see the logic in that.”

He claimed Mr Miller would regularly spend the night at his flat in December 2023 and that their group of friends would regularly come round to the flat to drink and socialise after a night out and stay until about 5am or 6am.

The jury was previously shown CCTV of Mr Fenwick trying to resuscitate Mr Miller as he was lying in the street.

They heard that paramedics were unable to save Mr Miller’s life and he was declared dead at the scene.