Mum found guilty of stabbing partner
AMUM has been found guilty of drunkenly stabbing her boyfriend with a kitchen knife at a friend’s flat in Bacup.
Dawn Walker, 35, had pleaded not guilty, blaming a nonexistent ‘third man’ for the ‘serious’ stab wounds to partner Damien Taylor’s hand and back at a flat in Bacup. But the jury found Miss Walker, of Rosendale Crescent, Bacup, guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a trial.
The mum-of-three who was described as being ‘cold and calculating’, was found by police cradling Mr Taylor’s head in a pool of his blood but was already concocting the story of a mysterious assailant to act as a defence, the court was told.
Miss Walker and Mr Taylor told police at the scene that the assault had been carried out on the flat doorstep by a third person who had fled the scene.
Mr Taylor had refused to give evidence at the trial and would not give a statement to police.
On November 5 last year, Mr Taylor and Miss Walker visited the home of friend, Albert White, on Hammerton Street in Bacup. Mr White told the court that Miss Walker was drunk and had ‘stumbled’ when he opened the front door and was ‘swaying from side to side’.
Soon after Mr White went to bed but around 15 minutes later he heard Miss Walker screaming ‘what the hell’s gone on?’.
Mr Taylor was lying on his front in the entrance to the kitchen with blood ‘seeping through his T-shirt’ ‘gasping for breath’. Mr White said Miss Walker was ‘hysterical’ and told him to call an ambulance.
Police officers found no blood on the doorstep or in the hallway but recorded a significant amount spattered around the living room and kitchen, and found a knife spattered with traces of blood in the kitchen.
PC Alexander Downham said Miss Walker was ‘quite drunk’ and became ‘verbally aggressive’ to officers. When Miss Walker was arrested on suspicion of assault, Mr Taylor told police ‘she hasn’t done anything’.
But prosecutor Nigel Booth told the jury: “Dawn Walker caused a wound to Damien Taylor, the breaking of the skin, bleeding, and when she did that she had an intention to cause some really serious bodily harm.
“This defendant was cold and calculating, after what happened she was immediately laying the ground work for a defence.” Walker was bailed to appear for sentence on March 31.