"Your primary reason for killing them both was because Katie started a relationship with another man," Mrs Justice Lambert tells Osborne.

"You were pathologically jealous of that relationship," she adds.

"I am sure you also engaged in sexual activity when Katie was either dead or dying."

"The motivation for both killings was sexual in nature. Both were driven by your sexual jealousy," Mrs Justice Lambert tells Osborne.

"You killed Katie and Steven because you believed they had started seeing each other and their relationship was an intimate one."

Mrs Justice Lambert is telling Osborne what options she has at her disposal, to decide how long he should spend in prison.

Image source, Yorkshire Live

These include a whole-life order, where Osborne (pictured) would never be released.

The other option is a minimum term, she says.

As the judge runs through the details of the attack on Steven, his family and friends are becoming visibly distressed, one wiping tears from her eyes.

Osborne ran away after he heard the police arriving following the murders of Katie Higton and Steven Harnett, the court hears.

That came after he invited a neighbour round to the house to show them the bodies, apparently "proud" of the murders, Mrs Justice Lambert says.

"You likened Katie and Steven to Romeo and Juliet, saying they 'could die together, can't they?'," Mrs Justice Lambert tells Osborne.

"You appeared calm and appeared laughing, listening to the voice notes exchanged between Steven and Katie on her phone," she adds.

More facts are being outlined by the judge at Leeds Crown Court.

We hear how Marcus Osborne booked a taxi using Katie's phone to lure her partner, Steven, to the house to kill him.

At the time, Steven thought he was speaking to Katie.

"There were 26 incisions to Katie's face," the judge tells Osborne.

"This was a merciless and sustained attack on a woman that was defenceless," the court hears.

Mrs Justice Lambert says she accepts the Crown's submissions that the attack was to disfigure Katie, as well as kill her.

"You were in a relationship with Katie for around five years," Mrs Justice Lambert tells Osborne.

"Shortly before Katie died, she gave a witness statement to police...in which she described the relationship."

"Around two years in, you started to become verbally abusive to her," she adds.

That verbal abuse quickly turned into physical abuse, we hear.

Katie's family has been shaken to its very core by what happened, we hear.

Steven's mother remains haunted by what happened that night last year, Mrs Justice Lambert says.

We're currently hearing from Mrs Justice Lambert.

She is outlining what happened on the night of the murders.

She is speaking directly to Osborne.

"This short summary does not begin to convey the full horror of what happened that night", she says.

Referring to another woman who was in the house at the time of Katie and Steven's murders, Mrs Justice Lambert tells Osborne he kept her "captive and in fear for her life".

The judge, Mrs Justice Lambert, has now entered the court.

She is going to deliver the sentence shortly, along with her reasonings. This can take up to 45 minutes.

Osborne is sat in the dock, behind thick glass which extends from the floor almost to the ceiling.

He has just confirmed his name.

Katie Higton and Steven Harnett were both murdered by Marcus Osborne at a house in Dalton, Huddersfield, in May 2023.

Image source, West Yorkshire Police

Yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, we heard more about who they were and how their deaths had affected their families.

We heard a statement from Katie's father, Robert Higton, who said: "I couldn't have asked for more when she was born.

"She has been so cruelly ripped away from me. I'll forever be expecting a call or text message from Katie, but I know it'll never come."

We also heard a statement from Janine Parkin, the mother of Steven Harnett.

She said her world came "crashing down" when she heard rumours something had happened to her son.

"My son had been brutally murdered. I felt my heart shatter into 1,000 pieces.

"The tasks of making calls to family and friends, listening to their haunting screams of grief, was torture."

"The pain is indescribable," she added.

Oli Constable
BBC News

The sentencing judge for this case is Mrs Justice Christina Lambert, a British High Court judge who was appointed to the north eastern circuit in 2020.

Image source, 1 Crown Office Row

She is very experienced, having been called to the Bar in 1988.

Many cases she presides over are the most serious we hear in courts.

Last year, Mrs Justice Lambert jailed a father who shook his nine-week-old baby to death in South Yorkshire.

I was sat in this very court centre 18 months ago when Mrs Justice Lambert jailed a mother and her bodybuilder boyfriend for life after a teenage boy was tortured and killed in Huddersfield.

When many people think of a judge passing a prison sentence, they may only imagine it taking a few minutes.

The act of telling the defendant how long they will serve in jail does only take a short amount of time.

But before the judge comes to their conclusion, there are many discussions that take place between the prosecution barristers, the defence barristers and the judge.

Back in July, Osbourne was told he would be given a life sentence, but today we will hear how long he will be in prison for.

The prosecution's case is that he should never be released - known as a whole-life term.

Yesterday, we heard from the prosecution who outlined some details in the case, as well as the defence barristers who argued there were mitigating circumstances.

In the next few minutes, we will hear from the judge who has been deciding for how long Osborne will be jailed.

The BBC's Sanchia Berg is in Court 13 this morning, where Osborne is about to be brought up.

She says Katie’s mother and aunt, and other family and friends, are in court now. They are sitting in the jury box as the public gallery is full.

There is another courtroom allocated in the building as an overflow, where journalists, some of the investigating police officers and family members are sat watching on a secure link.

Yesterday, we heard lots of details about what is thought to have happened on the night of the murders.

This included how Osborne committed a "pre-meditated and brutal double murder", brought about by sexual jealousy.

We heard how Katie left Osborne after she was attacked by him and she then went to the police about his behaviour.

The court was then told how both of Osborne's victims were lured to the house by him before they were murdered.

The prosecution described how there were children in the house during the murders, with Osborne laughing in between the attacks.

Oli Constable
BBC News

Hello and thank you for joining us as we await the sentencing of double-murderer and rapist Marcus Osborne at Leeds Crown Court.

Image source, Google

Last year, the 35-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of murder as well as a count of false imprisonment and rape.

He stabbed Katie Higton, 27, and Steven Harnett, 25, in an attack at a house in Huddersfield on 15 May 2023, before raping another woman at the property.

Yesterday, on the first day of the sentencing hearing, we heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence barristers.

Shortly, we'll hear from Mrs Justice Lambert, the judge presiding in the case, who will rule on the length of Osborne's imprisonment.

Today, the journalists covering the hearing are in an overflow court at Leeds Crown Court as the main courtroom where Osborne will be produced, Court 13, is full.

We're going to bring our live coverage of events at Leeds Crown Court to a close now.

Thank you for staying with us for our updates this afternoon.

Mrs Justice Lambert has said she will sentence Osborne on Friday morning.

We will bring you more live coverage then.

Mr Elvidge KC has finished his submissions in the defence of Marcus Osborne.

Mrs Justice Lambert thanks the barristers for their submissions and draws the hearing to a close.

She tells security staff to take Osborne away.