Joanne Maxwell recruited her own kids, Liam Donlin and Amie Clegg, to kill a man on his doorstep
Joanne Maxwell, 44, and her children Liam Donlin, 25, and Amie Clegg, 22(Image: Facebook)
To outsiders, the Joanne Maxwell and her family seemed like a wholesome family unity. One photograph, taken at a Race For Life fundraiser in Witton Park, Blackburn, captured Maxwell, 44, and her children Liam Donlin, 25, and Amie Clegg, 22, beaming at the camera and linking arms.
But beneath the surface was a far darker reality. Less than a fortnight after that cheerful event, the trio came together again – to carry out a brutal attack on a man at his own front door.
On Friday (January 30), the family sat side by side in the dock at Preston Crown Court, as they were jointly convicted of murder. Maxwell, the formidable matriarch, had a history of violence. Evidence presented to the jury included a disturbing photo of her brandishing two knives, a chilling reminder of her past convictions for weapons offenses and intimidation, Lancs Live reports.
Throughout the three week trial at Preston Crown Court, she sat stony faced as the shocking details of her crime were unpicked in microscopic detail. She didn’t flinch when footage of the moment her son, and firstborn child, plunged a knife into the chest of defenceless Paul Scott was shown on the giant screen in front of her. When Liam took to the witness box to give an account of what they had done, she sat back and let him.
Joanne Maxwell, 44(Image: Lancashire Police / SWNS)
The background to this cold blooded killing began with Maxwell, at a party neither her son or daughter attended. In August 2024, she went back to the home of Amie’s aunt after birthday celebrations, with her partner James Joyce, known as Tubby.
In the early hours of the morning, words were exchanged and a fight broke out between Maxwell and Tubby and another man, Charlie Elliot. During the brawl, Maxwell was punched – but when the police visited her the next day she said she did not want to make a statement.
Instead she made a series of threats against Elliot, and his pal ‘Little’ Paul Scott, who had left the party with him. Vicky Clegg, the party hostess, and her daughter Ellie, described phone calls the day after the fight in which Maxwell and her daughter were ‘screaming and shouting.’ In messages shown to the jury, Maxwell said she was going to t*** Paul Scott and damage his car.
At the time of the fight, Liam was in prison, having been jailed for his role in a spree of violence at pubs in Blackburn and Darwen. which saw him kick a man in the head as he was defenceless on the ground. But as her son sat out the remainder of his sentence, Maxwell’s hatred simmered.
Just weeks before he was killed, Paul told his niece he was scared of Maxwell and Donlin, saying, ‘they’re going to get me. You wait – they’re going to get me.’
Amie said her mum was ‘trying to behave’ – but all that changed on June 21, 2025. After drinking in pubs in Blackburn, Maxwell and Amie Clegg contacted Donlin – now out of jail but barred from drinking in pubs – and the three caught a taxi back to their home in Lynwood Avenue, Darwen.
The cab driver described Maxwell as ‘the calm one’ who sat in the front seat directing the proceedings. Initially she asked for them to be taken to ‘Pedro Place’ – later established to be Peridot Close and Paul Scott’s home address. However she changed the plan and diverted the taxi to their home.
Maxwell, 44, and her children Liam Donlin, 25, and Amie Clegg, 22(Image: Facebook)
Describing the passengers, the cab driver said Amie was constantly on her phone – the prosecution saying she was trying to find the whereabouts of Charlie Elliot. Liam was getting ‘angrier and angrier’ and ‘really charged up’ the cabbie said.
Back at the house, the self confessed drug dealer took to Snapchat to try and source a ‘ting’ (firearm) and ‘dinger’ (unlicenced car) – but when neither was forthcoming they took four knives from the kitchen block and headed off to Peridot Close in Maxwell’s Hyundai. As they travelled towards the scene, Donlin was on the phone, telling a friend he was going to ‘chop this kid up’ and post it on Snapchat.
His sister, who had been to Paul’s flat before, directed them along the route, carrying knives in her handbag. When they arrived, she recorded on a mobile phone as they approached the door in darkness.
Knowing Paul’s fear of her mum and brother, it was Clegg who shouted through the door for Paul to get out of bed. But as soon as he answered the door, Donlin lunged at him, plunging a knife into his bare chest and puncturing his heart.
As Paul bled out on the kitchen floor, Amie called 999 and gave false names. When instructed to give CPR, she said the victim was already dead – and when paramedics arrived, she claimed they had found Paul, already injured, when they went to visit him – a lie repeated by her mum, calmly at the scene.
All three denied murder, with Donlin claiming he had only intended to threaten Paul when he went armed with a knife. Maxwell and Clegg gave no comment when interviewed by police and did not give evidence at their trial. But after just three hours of deliberations the jury found all three guilty of murder and the two women guilty of possession of a bladed article – a charge Donlin had admitted earlier. On March 20, 2026, they will return to the dock to be sentenced for Paul Scott’s murder.
As he closed the case for the prosecution, Richard Littler KC set out the case against each defendant. Describing Maxwell’s role, he said: “Let’s be frank about it – the reason they are all here is because of her.
“She was the catalyst, the reason for her own son to want to kill. The reason an intention was formed to chop up or cause really serious injury to Paul Scott. She not only encouraged it, she championed it. She was the director and producer of this violent movie.”