Teachers stabbed by pupil thought they would die

Meleri Williams
BBC News

Two teachers stabbed by a teenage pupil thought they were going to die, a jury has heard.

Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, along with a student, were injured in the attack in April at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

The 14-year-old previously admitted the triple stabbing, but denies three counts of attempted murder.

On the second day of the trial, the jury was shown CCTV footage of the incident and police interviews with the two teachers.

Ms Elias, the school’s assistant head, explained how the girl had "looked at her with sinister eyes, like she was going to do something to me" before stabbing her.

She said she came to know the girl at the beginning of the school year when she found a knife in her bag.

She also taught the pupil, and said that there had been some problems with behaviour, saying she could be "immature" and "either really happy or moody".

On the day of the attack, she said she had asked the girl to leave the lower hall of the school, as she had done in the past, as she did not have permission to be there during break.

The teacher said she noticed her playing with something in her pocket.

"She was looking at me, saying 'I want to stay in here'," Ms Elias said in her interview with the police.

The conversation finished, Ms Elias said, and she went to join her colleague Ms Hopkin outside, with the girl approaching them minutes later.

Ms Elias said she explained to the girl again why she had no permission to go to the lower hall, as well as asking her about her trousers, which did not comply with school uniform.

Ms Elias said the girl kept playing with what was in her pocket.

The teacher said she told the girl she was not happy about the way she was looking at her and asked her what was in her pocket.

Ms Elias said the girl asked her if she wanted to see what was in her pocket. The teacher said she pulled out the knife and said she was going to kill her.

She said: "I thought it was going to die. I thought that was it." The teenager, the court heard, had "completely lost it".

"She was trying to get away, Liz and I were trying to call for help," Ms Elias said. "I just wanted to get the knife off her."

Ms Elias said Ms Hopkin shouted at her, saying: "Fiona, go, just go."

The court heard she saw cuts and blood on her arms when she went inside and took off her coat. CCTV shown to the jury showed Ms Elias leaving, and the girl then stabbing Ms Hopkin multiple times, before stabbing a pupil.

"I was really shaken up," Ms Elias said. "I was asking [the headteacher's personal assistant] to phone the police."

Ms Elias was given first aid by a staff member, and treated by paramedics in school.

She was transferred to Morriston Hospital to treat "superficial" stab wounds on both arms and her left hand. She was released from hospital the same day.

The jury then heard the police interview with Ms Hopkin, an additional learning needs coordinator.

Ms Hopkin said she was stabbed in the neck, and thought the girl was going to kill her and her colleague.

She explained how she saw the girl, who she did not know, approach Ms Elias.

"You could see it was her [Fiona Elias] who she was after. She wanted to hurt her," Ms Hopkin said.

"I thought, 'I cant let go, I can’t let go of her'. We were spinning round. Then she stabbed me in the leg."

She said she saw the knife falling to the floor, but the girl picked it up and came towards her and stabbed her in the neck.

"I thought, 'this is it'. I was shouting 'help, get help'.

"I felt she was going to kill me then. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop her.

"I’m glad to be alive and I’m really glad Fiona is alive. I feel if I hadn’t intervened, she could be dead now."

Ms Hopkin was flown to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff in an air ambulance from the school grounds for emergency treatment.

'She had a knife in her hand'

Stephen Hagget, another assistant head, who tried to calm the girl, told the court he was on duty during break time.

He said two pupils shouted there was a fight and he saw a large crowd gathered, and a teenage girl without anyone near her.

"I saw she was holding a knife in her right hand… she was staring," he said.

He said he tried to speak to the girl calmly and said the girl shouted she was going to kill Ms Elias if she saw her again.

He described how another teacher, Darrel Campbell, then joined him in trying to calm the girl, adding she pointed the knife at Mr Campbell.

He then said the girl turned a corner, ran toward a pupil, and attacked her, making two attempts to stab her.

Mr Hagget said he tried to help the pupil with first aid, leading her away from the scene, to safety.

The jury was played a video of the moments after the pupil's stabbing, in which pupils could be heard screaming, and a teacher telling people to get to their classrooms.

Teacher Mr Campbell told the court: "She looked angry, she was staring blankly, she was stiff, she looked as if she’d been in a fight.

"She started breathing very heavily. I thought it was very unusual. She was becoming angrier."

'Like something out of a horror movie'

He said she walked toward a group of pupils and screamed "like something out of a horror movie."

The girl attacked a pupil, the court heard.

Mr Campbell said: "I was right behind her. When she started running that’s when I saw the blade in her right hand."

The court heard he grabbed her wrist as she was going to stab the pupil for the third time.

Mr Campbell said he put her in a headlock and dragged her back towards the corner of a building, the knife still in her hand.

There he held her for five minutes, the jury heard, until the girl handed the knife to another assistant head.

The stabbed girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the defendant ran at her with a knife, threatening to kill her.

The pupil said she could hear people saying "she stabbed people, she's stabbed a teacher, she’s got a knife" during break.

She then heard her name and the teenager shouting she was going to kill her.

"I was crouching, but she was just trying to stab me, I know I was screaming," the pupil said.

'There was blood on my shirt'

"She stabbed me on the arm. I felt she was trying to hit me multiple times.

"I was flinging my legs around trying to get her off me. My hair was all over my face. I went into the nurse’s office, and took my jumper off, and there was blood on my shirt."

She did not know the teenager well, but said they had had an argument a few weeks or months previously.

"It was nothing big, just petty," she said.

The case continues.

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