Published date: 03 November 2015 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
A MAN has gone on trial on a charge of attempted murder amid allegations that he launched a frenzied knife attack on his partner after she told him to leave and was in the process of packing his bags.
Victim Laura Hartshorn, who began a relationship with Scott David Jones a year ago, ended up with life-threatening stab wounds during the attack at her home in Weale Court, Wrexham, a jury at Mold Crown Court was told yesterday.
Scott David Jones, 40, of St Mary’s Close in Chirk, denies attempted murder on May 10.
The jury was told he had already admitted an alternative charge of wounding her with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The previous night Miss Hartshorn, who has a six-year-old daughter, had been watching Britain’s Got Talent at home with the Jones’ daughter.
Mark Connor, prosecuting, 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 television 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 okay, but his response was abusive.
He accused her of being drunk and of calling him a boring bastard, but she tried to explain that he had overheard her referring to the television programme.
Mr Connor said Miss Hartshorn got the impression Jones 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.
Sometime later Jones went back over 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,” Mr Connor said.
It was alleged he was screaming at her that she would not see her daughter again which Mr Connor said was a clear indication of his intention.
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 was far too strong for her.
Miss Hartshorn was able to reach 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 with a knife making slashing and stabbing movements.
Mr Connor said: “She did not see a knife but became aware that she was being stabbed. She tried to defend herself, which is why she has defensive injuries to her right arm.”
Jones stopped and discarded the knife in the kitchen while she ran from the house screaming.
Jones 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.
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 the arm and finger which bled profusely but were not life threatening.
“The wounds to the abdomen were, however in a different category.
“The upper wound punctured her lung causing a partial collapse of her lung, as air was able to enter the chest cavity,” he said.
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 upon it.
The police tracked down Jones to an address in Wrexham where he was arrested.
He was drunk and was interviewed the following day.
In an original phone call with the police he suggested Miss Hartshorn had inflicted the wounds upon herself.
Miss Hartshorn told the jury she had been fighting for her life.
She looked down and blood was pouring from her abdomen.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, she said she saw her partner Scott Jones by the bedroom door.
“I saw his arm in a sweeping motion, quite fast,” she said.
Cross-examined by Duncan Bould, defending, she said that at 27 she was younger than the defendant who was 41.
She agreed that at times he could be romantic – for example he had written in the snow at Christmas time.
Miss Hartshorn agreed both could be argumentative.
Mr Bould asked about holes in a door which he said had been caused by her rage.
She said she did have mental health problems and had a borderline personality disorder.
Mr Bould asked her about an incident at the flat door after they had returned from his mother’s on the day of the incident.
She agreed she grabbed him by the neck and punched him, but she said it was not to hurt him.
She had said she wanted to show ‘everyone around here what you do to women’ and he had agreed, saying ‘fair enough’.
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