‘I HAD SO MUCH ANGER – I WANTED TO LASH OUT’
Woman hit shopper’s head with hammer while the victim was trying on shoes
AWOMAN tried to kill a complete stranger by hitting her on the head with a hammer as she tried on shoes. Helen Price, 49, received a 12-year extended sentence after admitting attempted murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of possessing an offensive weapon.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Price told police in interview: “I had so much anger in my head, I wanted to lash out and kill someone.”
The court heard the incident occurred at a shoe shop in Newport city centre on May 9 last year.
Prosecutor James Wilson said 66-year-old Wendy James was shopping with her husband when she felt a “heavy blow” to her head and blood running down her neck.
Mr Wilson said her husband chased the defendant, while the store manager alerted a nearby police officer.
The court heard the police officer recognised Price and searched her bag, revealing a claw hammer and garden fork.
He arrested her and she replied to the caution: “Thank you officer, I need help.”
Robert Garner, who has known the defendant for about 25 years, happened to be walking past the shop at the time, and told police she had attacked him the previous month.
Prosecutors said Mr Garner had visited Price’s flat in Lovett Gardens to check on her on April 26 last year, when he saw her raise her right arm, holding a garden trowel.
Mr Wilson said: “She lunged at him, cutting his cheek and chin.”
In her police interview, Price accepted taking a hammer and garden fork into Newport city centre.
She told officers: “I wanted to find someone and hit them over the head.”
Price said she decided to go into the shoe shop because she thought she would find someone sitting down.
She added: “If I’d tried anyone walking about, I reckon I’d have lost my chance.”
Price told officers she wanted to go back to HM Prison Eastwood Park, as she felt safe there, and accepted she wanted to kill the victim.
She said: “I tried to hit the woman as hard as I could. I held the hammer out and whacked her on the head.”
The defendant said she hit the victim three times until she thought she was dying.
Questioned about the incident involving Mr Garner, she told officers she was “really p***ed off” with him.
Asked why, she said: “Turned up unannounced, he did.”
Mr Wilson said: “It is clear he was trying to help her.”
Mrs James was taken to hospital and was found to have a wound to the top of her head, which had to be glued.
In a victim impact statement, she said: “The incident has completely shaken me up. I can’t understand why or how I was attacked – I had never seen her before in my life.”
She said she suffers from flashbacks and has been too scared to return to Newport since the attack.
Mrs James added: “I hope she gets the help she needs.”
In another victim impact statement, Mr Garner said he now feels frightened in crowded places.
The court heard he used to work in security at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, but is now unable to.
Prosecutors said Mr Garner had visited the defendant in hospital and did not want a restraining order to be made.
Mr Wilson said Price had previous convictions including battery, harassment, possession of a knife and breaching a restraining order.
The court heard she was given a community order in June 2014 for punching a stranger in the face in front of her daughter and grandchildren on Commercial Street in Newport.
Prosecutors said on that occasion, she scratched a member of the public who tried to help stop her and was found to have a six-inch kitchen knife in her bag.
In August 2015, she was made the subject of a community order and restraining order for harassing Robert Garner’s brother Richard.
The court heard she repeatedly sent him letters including messages like: “I hope your mother dies soon.”
She was jailed for 12 weeks after breaching the restraining order when she was caught outside his home with a claw hammer.
Price was jailed again when she breached the restraining order a second time by leaving a picture of a rat outside his home and a message saying: “Rot in hell.”
Harry Baker, defending, told the court of her mental disorder and stressed she was a vulnerable individual.
He said she had a history of anxiety and depression and also suffered from alcohol dependency.
Mr Baker emphasised she pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, adding: “This defendant wants protection from herself and other people who may take advantage of her.”
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Eleri Rees said: “Mrs James was attacked as a stranger in the most random of ways.”
She noted the attack was planned and premeditated, describing the incident as “unjustified and unexpected”.
Judge Rees observed a pattern of attacks on strangers and said the defendant had a “worrying” habit of carrying weapons, noting an “increased escalation in offending”.
After reading psychiatric and probation reports, the judge concluded that Price posed a high risk of serious harm to the public.
She imposed a 12-year extended sentence, made up of eight years in custody and four on licence, with a hybrid order under Section 45A and Section 41 of the Mental Health Act.
Price will be detained in hospital at the Caswell Clinic in Bridgend for as long as necessary and then transferred to prison.