A DOUBLE murderer who brought horror to a family home has been jailed for life.

Marcus Osborne, of Harpe Inge in Dalton, Huddersfield, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court earlier today (March 1) after admitting the murder of Katie Higton, 27, and Steven Harnett, 25, at a property on Monday, May 15, 2023.

The court heard that Osborne, 35, had gone to the house at Harpe Inge, which he had shared with Katie, just after midnight and threatened a woman inside.  

He waited for Katie to come home and after she did so, attacked her with a knife causing fatal injuries.

Osborne then used Katie’s phone to contact Steven and sent him messages pretending to be her which lured him to the address.   

After Steven arrived he was attacked by Osborne and died as a result of multiple injuries inflicted by a knife.  

The offending was reported after 9am on Monday after the woman Osborne had been holding was able to leave.

He handed himself in later on Monday while arrest enquiries were ongoing to locate him. 

Detective Superintendent Alan Weekes, who led the investigation into Osborne’s offending, said: “It is hard to understand the behaviour of anyone who acted as Osborne did in bringing horror to a family home.

“The absolutely brutal offences committed by Marcus Osborne during the morning of May 15 are some of the worst myself and other experienced homicide detectives have investigated in our careers.  

“Osborne’s attacks on his victims were savage but also chillingly calculated in their execution. His behaviour can only be described as truly monstrous."

In a statement, Katie’s family said: “Katie was a shining, beautiful and deeply caring soul whose presence lit up any room from the moment she entered it.    

“She was a much-loved mother, daughter, niece, granddaughter and sister and her loss has left a huge, gaping hole in the lives of her family and friends.

"We all continue to suffer from having her so brutally taken from us, and none more so than her four beautiful children. Their anguish has been almost impossible to bear.  

“They have lost a mum who was absolutely dedicated to them.  

“As a family, we will all miss her laughter, her fun and jokes and we will never again have the joy of loving messages from her at special times or of spending precious moments with her.  

“There is much we could say about the monster who took Katie from us.

"A man, if he can be called that, whose name does not deserve to even be mentioned within the same breath as hers.

"His sentencing today will not change the life sentence of loss he has inflicted upon us all."