I cannot recall how lover was stabbed, court told
A MARRIED father of four accused of stabbing his former lover to death yesterday told a court he cannot remember how she received two deadly knife wounds.
Stuart Thomas allegedly knifed Scottish hairdresser Katrina O’Hara twice in the chest at the barber’s where she worked after they split following an extramarital affair.
He suggested she must have stabbed herself. Her body was found in a pool of blood at the back of Jock’s Barbers in the village of Blandford Forum, Dorset.
Thomas had previously been arrested for harassing the mother-of-three. At the time of the alleged murder he was on bail on condition he did not contact her, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Miss O’Hara was born in Bangour, West Lothian, but lived in Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset, seven miles from Blandford, with her 16-year-old daughter Morgan. She also had sons Kyle, 25, and 23-year-old Dean.
The jury was previously told she and Thomas had entered into a romantic relationship after communicating on Facebook in May last year.
After Thomas became ‘manipulative and controlling of her’ Miss O’Hara tried to end the relationship as she ‘did not want to have an affair with a married man’, the court heard.
Thomas, 49, continued to send messages to Miss O’Hara, 44, saying they should be back together and began threatening to kill himself if she did not take him back, the trial heard.
The builder had previously driven Miss O’Hara into the countryside and threatened to ‘kill them both’ by driving into a tree, the jury was told.
Nigel Lickley, QC, prosecuting, also recalled various ‘fake suicide attempts’ by Thomas, including on Christmas Day when Thomas sent her pictures of a noose hanging down.
Thomas admitted he had not been feeling suicidal and ‘wanted a bit of attention from Katrina’.
He was arrested for harassment on December 30 and a week later on January 7 lay in wait outside the barber’s shop for Miss O’Hara to come out for a cigarette break.
Thomas had tried to hand Miss O’Hara some letters then followed her into the shop where he confronted her and allegedly stabbed her to death, the court heard yesterday.
He recalled walking into town with the knife and claims there was a confrontation in which he produced the kitchen blade to show her he would kill himself.
According to Thomas, there was a ‘struggle’ and he then remembers nothing except waking up in hospital, but denies he stabbed his ex-lover.
During cross-examination by Mr Lickley, Thomas claimed he ‘can’t remember’ if the wounds to Miss O’Hara’s chest were caused when he was holding the knife or if she stabbed herself.
When Mr Lickley suggested ‘she didn’t stab herself to death’, Thomas said: ‘I can’t remember. I remember holding the knife to my wrist.’ The QC said: ‘You took the knife into the barber’s shop and you took it out of the barber’s shop.
‘Having stabbed her in the chest you turned and walked away, leaving her there. You didn’t have any care for that lady’s welfare at all – what did you do you help her?’
Thomas repeatedly responded ‘I can’t recall anything,’ and when asked if he had dialled 999 for an ambulance, he replied: ‘My mind wasn’t there.’
Thomas claimed he wanted to see Miss O’Hara to ‘give her some letters’ that would ‘lead her mind back to where things had gone wrong’.
Asked why he had taken a knife with him, Thomas said: ‘I wanted to make her aware I was serious about her and I wouldn’t harm her. It was to harm myself.’ Thomas denies murder.
The trial continues.
‘Did not want an affair’