Published date: 06 November 2015 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A MAN who launched a frenzied knife attack on his younger partner after she told him to leave and was in the process of packing his bags has been convicted of attempted murder.
Scott David Jones, who denied the charge and insisted he loved her, had already admitted wounding her with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm.
He was remanded in custody pending an assessment of his future risk and will be sentenced next month.
Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court, told him: “You appreciate that it is going to be a long sentence.”
The judge said he could not sentence Jones, 41, yesterday because a pre-sentence report would be needed. That was because he needed to know the risk Jones would pose of causing serious harm in the future.
Defending barrister Duncan Bould said while his client had convictions for minor violence, there had been a gap in his offending on a couple of occasions.
There was nothing of such severity in his past, he said.
Jones showed no emotion when the jury of seven women and five men returned an 11-1 guilty verdict after a total retirement of five hours and 23 minutes.
Victim Laura Hartshorn, 27 , who began a relationship with Jones in about November last year, ended up with life-threatening stab wounds during the attack at her home in Weale Court, Wrexham, on May 10.
The jury heard how Jones, of St Mary’s Close, Chirk, lived with her four or five nights a week at her flat.
The previous night, Miss Hartshorn, who has a six-year-old daughter, was watching Britain’s Got Talent at home with Jones’ daughter.
Prosecuting barrister Mark Connor said the two of them shared some wine while watching television and Miss Hartshorn remembered they were being quite loud and laughing a lot at the programme.
Jones was upstairs watching TV in the bedroom. When she went to bed, he was already asleep.
She woke up the next day quite late and saw Jones coming back into the flat.
She asked him if he was ok, but his response was abusive.
He accused her of being drunk and of calling him a boring b*****d, but she tried to explain he had overheard her referring to the television programme.
Mr Connor said she got the impression he was spoiling for a fight. Jones accused her of not paying back some money and became very angry.
“He then grabbed her around the throat and pushed her up against the hall cupboard and punched her to the mouth while choking her,”
he said.
Jones threatened to get some of his friends to beat her up and said he was going to petrol bomb her flat.
She was able to run across to his mother’s house where she made her some tea.
Shortly afterwards Jones went over and she told him the relationship was over. She then returned to her flat to pack Jones' belongings.
Jones returned and found her packing his things.
“He begged her for another chance, but when he realised that she was serious he lost control, dragged her onto her bed and started to choke her so that she could not breathe,” he alleged.
It was alleged he was screaming at her that she would not see her daughter again.
She tried to say sorry and tried to push him off, but she could not speak because she was being choked and Jones was in a rage and far too strong for her.
Miss Hartshorn was able to reach to a wooden box, which she used to strike Jones.
She made a run towards the bedroom door, but he prevented her from leaving and then began to lunge towards her making slashing and stabbing movements.
Mr Connor said: “She became aware she was being stabbed.
“She tried to defend herself, which is why she has defensive injuries to her right arm.”
Jones stopped and he discarded the knife in the kitchen while she ran from the house screaming.
He was seen to walk calmly from the flat and glance casually back at her as she was in the street bleeding.
Mr Connor said: “He made no attempt to help, call an ambulance or even apologise despite knowing what he had done.”
She suffered six incised wounds consistent with the use of a knife and an injury to her finger.
There were three stab wounds to her abdomen and three to her arm, one caused by a slashing motion. The other two were stab wounds.
There were defensive wounds to her arm and finger, which bled profusely, but they were not
life-threatening.
“The wounds to the abdomen were in a different category," said Mr Connor.
“The upper wound punctured her lung causing a partial collapse of her lung as air was able to enter the chest cavity."
The same wound also caused an incised wound to her liver.
Mr Connor said: “The three wounds to the abdomen had the potential to prove life threatening and it is fortuitous that the wounds were not deeper.”
A serrated kitchen knife was recovered discarded behind the bin in the kitchen. DNA testing showed it had her body tissue and blood on it.
Jones claimed he could remember nothing of the knife attack on her due to the alcohol he had taken.
Questioned by defence barrister Duncan Bould, Jones said he could remember nothing from leaving a friend’s house after drinking alcohol until he woke up in a police cell in the early hours of the next morning not knowing what had happened.
For full story see - http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/154554/chirk-man-scott-jones-found-guilty-of-attempted-murder.aspx
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