Teachers stabbed by pupil in Ammanford school stabbing thought they would die, court hears
2 October 2024, 14:52
Teachers who were stabbed by a teenage pupil thought they were going to die, a jury has heard.
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Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, along with a student, were injured in the attack in April, at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.
The girl - who cannot be named for legal reasons - previously admitted to wounding with intent but has denied attempted murder.
Swansea Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the girl attacking the teachers, as the trial resumed for its second day on Wednesday.
She could be seen talking with the teachers outside the main school building for a short time before launching an attack on Ms Elias, with Ms Hopkin attempting to restrain her.
She then stabbed Ms Hopkin in the leg and was able to wrestle free, dropping the knife before picking it up again and attacking Ms Hopkin.
The jury was also shown police interview footage with the teachers following the stabbing.
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”.
Ms Elias described the girl as being "very menacing" while she played with something in the right pocket of her black cargo trousers.
When the teacher asked her what she was playing with, she responded: "Do you want to see what's in my pocket?"
Read more: Teenage girl denies attempted murder after two teachers and pupil stabbed at Welsh school
The teenager then brought out the knife and began to stab Ms Elias saying, "I'm going to f****** kill you".
Ms Elias said: "I thought I was going to die, I thought that was it. I tried to restrain her; I remember holding her arms.
"Her face - she had lost it, the red mist had come down, she had completely lost it."
At that point, Ms Hopkin shouted, "Fiona, just go".
Asked to describe the girl before the attack, she said: "Very distant, very menacing.
"Just looking at me like she was going to do something to me, in a way she was looking through me."
She described being unsure what injuries she had suffered until she was sat in the office and had taken off the yellow hi-vis jacket she had been wearing.
A colleague treated her with first aid before paramedics arrived and she was treated in Morriston Hospital for her injuries sustained to the top of her right arm and left bicep, and a small cut to her left hand.
Ms Hopkin told police she had never met the teenager before but described her as acting "really strangely" ahead of the attack.
"She just said, 'do you want to see what's in my pocket?' It was very deadpan and she then just got a knife out of her pocket and went to stab Fiona.
"I wasn't quick enough to stop her. I was trying to hold her arms down. You could see that it was (Ms Elias) that she was after, so I said, 'Fiona, go go go'.
"I thought I can't let go but because she had a jacket on I couldn't get a grip. She stabbed me in the leg, that was the first place I got stabbed."
As the girl picked the knife up again, Ms Hopkin said she remembered the girl coming up to her "face on" and stabbing her in the neck.
"I remember thinking sh*t, this is it, she stabbed me," she said.
"I was just shouting for help, in hindsight I should have shouted 'knife', I think people would have moved quicker, I could see the kids and I was just thinking people are going to get hurt."
As she tried to get away the girl stabbed her twice in the back.
She added: "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 taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff by air ambulance for treatment.
