Teachers stabbed by pupil thought they would die
· BBC NewsMeleri Williams
BBC News
Teachers who were stabbed by a teenage pupil thought they were going to die, a jury has heard.
Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, along with a student, were injured in the attack in April at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford.
The 14-year-old previously admitted the triple stabbing, but denies attempted murder.
On the second day of the trial, the jury were 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 incident, she said she had asked the girl to leave the lower hall of the school, as she had done in the past, as she didn’t have permission to be there during break time.
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 then left the building to go and join her colleague Ms Hopkin outside, with the girl approaching them some 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 didn’t comply with school uniform.
Ms Elias added that the girl continued to "play whatever she had in her pocket".
The teacher said she told the girl she wasn’t happy about the way she was looking at her and asked her what she had in her pocket.
Ms Elias said the girl asked her if she wanted to see what's in her pocket. The teacher then said she pulled out the knife and said she was going to kill her.
“I thought it was going to die. I thought that was it,” said Ms Elias.
She said the teenager had "completely lost it".
“She was trying to get away, Liz and I were trying to call for help. I just wanted to get the knife off her.”
Ms Elias explained how Ms Hopkin shouted at her, saying: “Fiona, go, just go,” and 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 was treated by paramedics in school.
She was transferred to Morriston hospital to treat “superficial” stab wounds on both her arms and her left hand. She was released from hospital on 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 didn’t know, approaching Ms Elias.
“You could see it was her [Fiona Elias] who she was after. She wanted to hurt her,” Ms Hopkin explained.
“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.
Stephen Hagget, another assistant head, who tried to calm the girl after she stabbed both teachers then gave evidence to the jury.
Mr Hagget told the court he was on duty during break time.
He said two pupils shouted to him that there was a fight and he then saw a large crowd gathered, and a teenage girl without anyone near her.
“As I approached 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 that she pointed the knife towards Mr Campbell.
He then said that 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. He also helped with treating Ms Hopkin.
The 14-year-old girl denies three counts of attempted murder. The trial continues.