‘Friend with benefits’ is stabbed

A Taranaki woman stabbed a man she met online, puncturing his lung, and then left him to bleed, a court was told.

Yesterday, Hallie Wade pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to injure after she stabbed a man in his chest with a 12-centimetre steak knife with a single strike on the evening of July 2, 2019.

‘‘Shame... that’s what you get,’’ Wade told him, according to the summary of facts. She walked away from the bleeding man and did not offer him any assistance.

The injured man ended up seeking medical help from a stranger and had to spend time in intensive care.

The Crown charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.

The summary of facts outlined how Wade, who is in her 30s, and the man had met on Facebook.

They had been in a relationship described as ‘‘friends with benefits’’ for about five months, the summary stated.

On the day of the incident, the man visited Wade at her home in New Plymouth. The pair later went to Wade’s neighbour’s house where they drank alcohol with a group.

Later in the evening, an argument erupted between the man and Wade, during which she told the man she felt like stabbing him.

The man then argued with the occupants of the neighbouring address.

Following the confrontation, he began to leave the property.

As he walked away from Wade and her neighbours, the man sensed he was being followed. He turned around and Wade was there with a knife.

She stabbed him in the chest and then returned to her neighbour’s house and closed the door behind her.

Seeking assistance, the man went back to the house and cried out: ‘‘Why did you stab me?’’

‘‘That’s what you get,’’ Wade replied. Following the stabbing, the bloodied man arrived at the doorstep of a Breakwater Rd property in Moturoa around 11.30pm. A man at the house applied pressure to the chest wound to staunch the bleeding while talking to him in an effort to keep him conscious.

After an ambulance crew arrived, the injured man was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital where he spent time in the Intensive Care Unit. He required a chest tube to reinflate and drain the blood from his lung.

Wade later told police her neighbours had asked the man to leave their address a number of times.

After heeding their requests, the man returned and peered through the windows, Wade claimed.

‘‘She freaked out and picked up a knife,’’ the summary stated.

Wade will be sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court on July 9.

They had been in a relationship described as ‘‘friends with benefits’’.