Shaun Newton

A prisoner who murdered his cellmate has been sentenced to life imprisonment – and will have to serve a minimum of 34 years.

Shaun Newton (pictured right) compressed the neck of Tony Joynes, 47, in the cell they shared at HMP Garth, Ulnes Walton, near Leyland.

At the time, Newton was serving an 18-year sentence at Garth having been convicted of attempted murder at Snaresbrook Crown Court in 2019.

He had stabbed his roommate four times with a knife while living and working in Romford, Essex, in 2018.

Dangerous criminal Joynes had been jailed for 15 years in 2019, after he carried out a terrifying axe and knife attack on a Workington couple at their own home. He stabbed both several times as they fought back. He was also jailed for burgling the home of a 93-year-old who he tied up and stabbed with a screwdriver.

A jury at Preston Crown Court Sessions House was told that Newton and Tony Joynes had been cell mates for around six months and were locked in their cell on Garth’s D wing at 5pm on 12th July 2025 and remained there overnight, with checks carried out by staff at various times.

When staff carried out welfare checks on the wing on the morning of 13th July, they responded to the buzzer being pressed from cell 47.

Newton told them that he thought Tony Joynes was dead.

Staff raised the alarm and CPR was attempted on Tony Joynes but to no avail. He was very sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

It was noticed that Joynes had an abrasion on his neck which had bled, with blood found on the bed sheets near his pillow.

A Home Office postmortem found the case of death to be neck compression.

Lancashire Police’s Force Major Investigation Team launched an investigation, and Newton was arrested at Garth Prison on 22nd July and taken for interview at Blackpool Police Station.

Newton told officers that after being locked down for the night, him and Tony chatted, played Xbox, before he got on to the top bunk around 7.45pm.

He described Tony as being fine, but the following morning found him dead.

In December 2025, Newton was interviewed again by officers at HMP Full Sutton and was charged with murder in March this year.