PAL WHO TRIED TO
AN enraged sex worker mowed down a former pal who stepped in as peacemaker to help end a feud over a love triangle.
Kim Venables used her Ford Focus “as a battering ram” after a showdown with her estranged wife’s ex-lover, Toni Farrington.
But while 20- year- old Toni escaped the horrific attack with just a few bruises, pal Zara Morgan was left in agony on the pavement with her leg hanging half off.
Zara, 30, a friend of both women, said: “We thought Kim was just trying to scare us.
“But suddenly I went under the bonnet and my leg snapped two different ways. My bone was sticking out 15cm. I found out later my flesh was over the road.”
SHOCK
The mum, whose father died in a crash when she was three, added: “I screamed, ‘ This is how my dad died, tell my son I love him’. I’m in utter shock and disbelief Kim would do this to me. I replay the moment over and over – her angry, evil expression as she drove at us.”
The attack by £ 40- anhour massage parlour worker Venables, 39, was caught on CCTV.
It followed years of jealousy, and a vendetta that started after Toni began dating Venables’ estranged wife in 2015 – after their marriage had broken down.
Toni recalled: “It was constant abuse. Kim would ring and accuse me of breaking her family.
“The things she’d say were disgusting. She’d say, ‘ You’re a child, I’m gonna put you over my knee and smack your a**e’ or disgusting threats to injure my privates.
“She’s why her ex and I ended our engagement – I got sick of all the abuse. Stupidly, I never reported her. I thought it was just words.”
It was on January 5, two weeks after Toni had parted from her lover, that she agreed to meet Venables to “discuss their differences”.
They met outside The Raven pub in Crewe, Cheshire – and Toni took pal Zara, 30, for support.
Although not involved in the row, as a friend of both Toni and Venables she hoped to calm the tension. Toni said: “I thought we’d resolve our differences like adults.”
Zara added: “I knew Kim and thought of her as a friend – but when I got there, Kim and her friend started calling me a ‘ black b***h’.”
Toni recalled: “Kim challenged me to fight but I wouldn’t. She wanted a reaction but wasn’t getting one.”
The group was moved on by the pub’s management, and Toni and Zara were picked up by family.
But the showdown turned violent when the pals were dropped off at a nearby cul-de-sac, rather than their houses, in the hope that Venables would not find them. In CCTV,
Kim was smirking as she drove off. She found it hilarious
TONI FARRINGTON
ON MOMENT OF HORROR
Venables is seen driving past before turning round and driving at the pair at speed.
Toni, who suffered bruising on her legs and collarbone, said: “The car hit my right leg and spun me – I put my hand against the bonnet and somehow landed on my feet.
“My mum saw the whole thing from her car, she thought she was witnessing a double murder.
“Kim smirked as she turned round and drove off. She found it hilarious.” It was Zara who took the full impact of the attack. A 999 first response team propped her maimed limb up on a traffic cone as they battled to find a pulse. Zara said: “I nearly lost my leg.”
Toni says she was chaperoned by police until Venables was arrested that evening because “they thought she’d try and finish the job”.
Zara was rushed to Royal Stoke University Hospital for five hours of surgery. Doctors screwed 11 pins to fit a brace on her leg to hold the bones in place as they mend. She