Woman 'plunged' knife into boyfriend - court

Adam Laver
BBC News, Yorkshire
Reporting fromBradford Crown Court
Google Ariel view of Dobrudden Caravan Park in Baildon Google
The incident happened at Dobrudden Caravan Park in Baildon

A man said he felt a knife "plunge" into his stomach during an argument with his girlfriend at a caravan park.

Courtney Mulchrone, 27, is on trial charged with wounding her boyfriend Jordan Minnott, 32, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on 4 May 2024.

She is also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point, namely a kitchen knife. Miss Mulchrone pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Earlier at Bradford Crown Court, a jury heard a police interview with Mr Minnott in which he described the moment he felt the knife go in and out of his body.

Mr Minnott, from Clayton in Bradford, said he had been on a night out with Miss Mulchrone and another couple at the Slug and Lettuce in Leeds on 4 May.

He told a police officer that Miss Mulchrone was trying to make him jealous by speaking to other men and when he did not intervene, she slapped him in the face.

Mr Minnott said he went home and during his journey Miss Mulchrone phoned him repeatedly, telling him "I'm going to kill you" and "you don't know who you're messing with".

'Left for dead'

Once home in Clayton, Mr Minnott said Miss Mulchrone rang him to tell him she was going to take her own life and he got a taxi to Dobrudden Caravan Park in Baildon, where she was living at the time.

When he arrived at around 07:00 GMT, she was kicking his Audi A1 car, which he had left there, and the pair began arguing.

"Out of nowhere I've just seen a knife come out," Mr Minnott told the police officer.

"I put my hands out to try and stop it but it came straight through my fingers."

He said his hand and fingers "immediately started to bleed".

"I just felt the knife plunge into me and then back out of me," Mr Minnott said.

"I just remember dropping to the floor and trying to stop the bleeding."

Mr Minnott said Miss Mulchrone did not try to help him or call an ambulance when he was on the floor bleeding.

He said: "She told me she loved me and she just left me for dead.

"She had no remorse."

At 07:21 GMT, emergency services arrived and took Mr Minnott to intensive care.

A jury was told that Mr Minnott suffered a laceration to his liver and had to have surgery to stop internal bleeding.

His condition was critical, the court heard, and potentially life-threatening - but was stabilised after being in a coma.

'Toxic'

The relationship between the pair had only started in January 2024 but "it started to become toxic" just a month later, according to prosecutor Gerald Hendron.

He described Miss Mulchrone acting "in a rage" when she "plunged" a kitchen knife into her boyfriend's stomach.

Mr Hendron said the prosecution "can only conclude it was intending to cause really serious harm".

Andrew Walker, defence counsel, confirmed Miss Mulchrone denied the charges on the basis that she was acting in self-defence.

The court heard Miss Mulchrone, now of Burnhope, Durham, had said Mr Minnott "was strangling me and I had no choice", but when questioned by police she answered "no comment" to all questions.

The trial continues.

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