Woman threatened to ‘slice up’ her neighbour
A WOMAN armed herself with a kitchen knife and threatened to “slice up” a neighbour as the victim’s terrified young son looked on, a court has heard.
Miriam Heale was described by witnesses as foaming at the mouth and “acting like a madwoman” as she ranted in the street on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
She then turned her aggression on the police who responded to 999 calls, subjecting officers to half an hour of abuse and threats.
Swansea Crown Court heard Heale has experienced a number of traumas in her life including seeing her brother sentenced to life in prison for murder when she was aged just 15.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said the knife confrontation began when a woman living in Llanllienwen Close in Cwmrhydycierw, Swansea, returned home on the afternoon of March 20 to find her house had been broken into and ransacked.
The woman began asking neighbours if they had heard or seen anything suspicious and she called out to Heale, who she could see was sitting in her nearby flat.
The court heard the interaction was initially without any issues but then Heale suddenly burst out of her property with a kitchen knife in hand and began waving it at the burglary victim, shouting “I’m going to slice you up” and “I’ve been watching you for months”.
The woman and her young son retreated into their house and Heale began banging on the front door and threatening to kill the mother.
Mr Pulling said friends of the burgled woman who had responded to news of the breakin by going to her house described Heale as foaming at the mouth.
They said she appeared to be “off her head on drugs” and was “acting like a madwoman”.
An emergency call was made to the police and armed officers were dispatched to the incident.
The court heard officers found an aggressive Heale “clearly under the influence of substances” and she launched into a 30-minute tirade of abuse and threats against them which continued during her arrest, the journey to Swansea Central police station and while she was in custody.
Police subsequently recovered a yellow-handled kitchen knife with a seven-inch blade from the hallway of the defendant’s flat, along with a bag of cocaine.
Heale was interviewed the following day and denied all the allegations involving the knife. She said the cocaine belonged to her boyfriend Christopher Davies.
Miriam Hannah Heale, 35, of Penrhyn Court, Llanllienwen Close, Cwmrhydyceirw, Swansea, admitted possession of a bladed article in a public place and to possession of cocaine.
She has previous convictions for 67 offences including dishonesty matters, drug-dealing and violence. In 2018 she was sentenced to 36 months in prison for assault occasioning actual bodily harm – an offence conducted jointly with her partner which saw her beating up and strangling a man in his 60s with learning difficulties and threatening to kill his dog. The motivation for the assault was the attackers’ belief that their victim had told police they had been dealing drugs.
Giles Hayes, for Heale, said the defendant was someone whom he had been representing in court “for the best part of 20 years”.
He said the defendant had experienced a number of traumas in her life including the suicide of her father at the age of eight and seeing her brother jailed for life for murder when she was 15.
The advocate said Heale suffered with depression and substance misuse and was motivated to work with probation to address the issues in her life.
Judge Geraint Walters told Heale that on a sunny March afternoon, while families had been going about their business around their homes, she had “completely lost the plot” and threatened a neighbour in front of her terrified young son.
He said he was not unsympathetic to the issues in the defendant’s childhood but he was not convinced that she was yet at the point where she was serious about changing her life.
With a one-quarter discount for her guilty pleas, Heale was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She must serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Heale was also made the subject of five-year restraining order banning her from contacting the woman she threatened.