Susan Newell was the last woman to be hanged at one of Scotland’s most notorious prisons for the brutal murder of a paper boy.

The Glasgow mum was aged just 30 when she was ordered to the gallows of the now-demolished Duke Street Prison in 1923.

Newell has been branded as one of the most evil women in Scottish history for the callous nature in which she murdered 13-year-old John Johnstone.

At around 7pm on June 20, 1923, the youngster chapped on the door of Newell’s Coatbridge home - which she shared with her husband John Newell and her eight-year-old daughter Janet McLeod.

John Johnstone was brutally murdered during a visit to the Newell home in 1923

Susan invited John into the home and it was the last time that anyone saw him alive.

Neighbours reportedly heard loud thumps as Newell scrambled to dispose of the teen’s body. She initially tried to bury him under the floorboards, but the desperate plan came to no avail.

She was prompted to force her daughter into assisting as she arrived back to their family home.

Janet helped her mum wrap John’s body in a brightly coloured quilt before the pair lifted the body downstairs the following morning.

The mother and daughter opted to use a go-cart to wheel John’s body on an eight-mile journey from Coatbridge to Glasgow.

A lorry driver noticed that the pair were struggling with the cart as they made their way into the city.

Thomas Dickson happened to be heading in the same direction and offered to put the cart on the back of the vehicle.

But as they got off the truck, the makeshift cover for the body was exposed slightly as his foot emerged from one end of the quilt.

Thomas Dickson helped the pair with the go-cart as he saw the mother and daughter struggle on their way to Glasgow

John’s head, which was covered in burns to his scalp and ears, had also become visible.

Lorry driver Thomas was left completely unaware of what was unfolding, but the grisly sight caught the attention of one local resident below her window.

As Newell started to dump the body inside a close on Duke Street, a police officer was on hand to arrest her at the scene.

Both Susan and her husband were charged with John Johnstone’s murder.

Daughter Janet had told the court how she was forced into helping her evil mum dispose of the body.

Evidence given during the trial had revealed the horrors of what went on in the house.

John Johnstone had been strangled so brutally that his windpipe had burst. Parts of his skull were found to have caved in as a result of the beating he received.

How the Daily Record reported Newell's guilty verdict in 1923

John Newell was found not guilty of murder after his relatives swore that he had been at a funeral in the city that day and had stayed overnight.

Susan’s lawyer tried to plead insanity but her defence was rejected by the judge and she was sent to the Glasgow prison to be hanged.

The 30-year-old continued to blame her husband for little John's death in the days leading up to her hanging.

News of the incident shocked Scotland at the time and it became known as the ‘go-cart murder’.