A teenager was hacked to death by a machete-wielding ‘lunatic’ after he tried to protect a group of girls outside a pub.

Zac Evans, 19, died instantly when he was attacked along with two friends outside the Pike and Musket pub in Tuffley, Gloucester, at about 12.40am yesterday.

Police – who have arrested a man – are now hunting for the machete, which is thought to have a 2-foot blade.

This morning, Zac’s mum, sister and grandmother attended a church service where prayers were said teen’s family and friends.

They did not speak to press outside the church, and appeared visibly upset.

A family spokesperson, who preferred not to be named, said Zac had stepped in to help someone else before he was attacked.

She said: “It’s something that should never have happened, he stepped in to help someone else.

“We only know what we have been told be people that were with him, one of them has gone into hospital and the other one came to see us this morning.

“We understand there was an altercation between some girls with Zac and their friends and Zac stepped in to help.

“Then some lunatic came out of nowhere and attacked him. You don’t expect this to happen in a local pub, it is a lovely, friendly place.

“This is not something that happens in Gloucester, you read about these things on the news but it doesn’t happen on your doorstep, and doesn’t happen to someone you know.

“We just need to find this man and bring him to justice.”

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Miss Gazzard was nearing the end of her shift when she was brutally set upon.

During the attack in February, and as paramedics and police officers desperately tried to save the 20-year-old’s life, bystanders were filming on their mobile phones. Police later warned them not to upload the pictures to social media sites.

In the run-up to her death, Miss Gazzard had used her Twitter account to hint at her on/off relationship with an ex-boyfriend.

One tweet, written last December, said: “Why are people so selfish?! If a person isn’t happy within the relationship why try and make them stay?!”

Another, a retweet sent just a few weeks before she died, said: ‘Sometimes holding on is a sign of weakness.’

Following her death, Miss Gazzard’s family said ‘the brightest star’ in their lives had gone out.

A post-mortem examination found she died from multiple stab wounds.

He told Maslin: ‘Your sentencing will take place on a date to be fixed in the relative near future.

‘You appreciate that the only sentence that can be imposed is one – imprisonment for life.

‘It will be for the sentencing judge to determine the minimum term you will serve before you become eligible for parole.

‘In the meantime you will be remanded into custody.’

Maslin, of Benhall Gardens, Cheltenham, had been due to go on trial at Gloucester Crown Court on July 14.

Miss Gazzard’s family did not wish to speak after the hearing.

But Detective Chief Inspector Steve Bean, the senior investigating officer, said: ‘This was a spiteful and cowardly attack by a self-obsessed individual who couldn’t handle rejection.

‘I think Maslin realised he didn’t have a chance but he pleaded guilty as the evidence was overwhelming.’

He said Maslin purchased a knife and went to the salon to attack her.

‘Maslin, following a domestic split, purchased a knife and went to Hollie’s place of work. They had a row and he stabbed her 14 times,’ he said.

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A FAILED asylum seeker is set to sue the Government after a judge ruled he was kept in jail unlawfully.

The case of robber Salimur Rahman emerged the day after a drug dealer won the right to millions in compensation from the taxpayer because of an EU directive.

Critics last night accused officials of bungling Rahman’s deportation, saying a likely five-figure payout was “rubbing salt in the wound”.

Homeless Rahman was due to be kicked out of Britain in 2010 after serving a jail sentence for mugging a woman in Gloucester.

But he was kept in prison pending deportation, the High Court was told.

His process was then delayed after he told officials he did not know whether he was born in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Further delays were caused by the 31-year-old launching an asylum bid.

He later dropped his application and was eventually released on bail in September last year, the court heard.

Rahman sued Home Secretary Theresa May on the grounds that his continued detention was a breach of his human rights.

Yesterday, Judge Rhodri Price Lewis, QC, ruled in his favour saying Rahman should not have been kept in jail for the last six months of his time behind bars.

He said the delay in processing the robber’s deportation was mostly due to Rahman’s “lack of co-operation”.

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On Tuesday, a High Court judge ruled drug dealer Sean Delaney could sue for millions in compensation after he was injured in a car crash while transporting a half-pound block of cannabis.

Mr Justice Jay ruled in favour of Delaney, 40, as the UK government is in breach of European law over invalid motor insurance.

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A young hairdresser was stabbed to death at the salon where she worked in front of horrified colleagues and customers.

Hollie Gazzard, 20, was nearing the end of her shift when a man walked in and subjected her to a brutal attack.

Yesterday the police arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of her murder. The suspect, named locally as Asher Maslin, is understood to be Miss Gazzard’s ex-boyfriend, whom she apparently broke up with last month.

Police searched a building site near the scene and recovered a knife – and they are not looking for any other weapons in connection with the death.

The hairdresser was stabbed in front of colleagues at the Fringe Benefits salon in Gloucester, some of whom are now receiving counselling.

Emergency services were called to the scene just before 6pm on Tuesday where they encountered what police described as a ‘very, very nasty incident’. The victim was taken to hospital but later died from her injuries.

Shockingly it emerged that members of the public filmed the incident on their phones – forcing police to ask anyone with footage of paramedics trying to save Miss Gazzard’s life not to post it on social media websites.

Yesterday a police spokesman confirmed that the suspect had previously been in a relationship with Miss Gazzard, and was now being held at Cheltenham police station.

Miss Gazzard’s friend Kayleigh Bishop said that the couple had an ‘on-off’ relationship and  had moved in together briefly  last year.

Miss Bishop, 20, added: ‘I don’t know what had happened to make them finally break up – but they were never right for each other. She wasn’t going out with anyone else.’

On the Fringe Benefits website, Miss Gazzard, who until recently worked on a cruise ship, said that she has been working in the industry since the age of 16.

But in December last year Miss Gazzard appeared to open up about her relationship on her Twitter feed, writing: ‘Why are people so selfish?!’

A number of other messages seem to refer to her ex-partner, with one reading: ‘Finally Ashers gone to sleep after being sick about five times and complaining that he’s dying.’

Yesterday Miss Gazzard’s family said ‘the brightest star’ in their lives had gone out.

In a statement issued through Gloucestershire Police, they said: ‘Hollie is our daughter and she was a beautiful, happy and loving girl. Everybody she came in contact with loved her, enjoyed her company, her happy nature and her sense of fun.’

They added: ‘She was at the beginning of life and to have it taken away in this manner is very hard to bear. The only comfort we have at this time is that Hollie is now free and at peace and that no harm can ever come to her.’

On her salon’s website Hollie herself as someone who is passionate about her work.

‘My career as a hairdresser started when I was 16 and was offered an apprenticeship within a salon in Gloucester,’ she wrote.

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