BOYFRIEND FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING YOUNG MOTHER
The boyfriend of a young mum has been found guilty of murdering her in a savage knife attack.
Dylan Harries repeatedly stabbed and slashed 19-year-old Katrina Evemy in the eyes, head, neck, stomach and back at her home in Llanelli – most likely in front of her toddler daughter.
Paramedics managed to re-start Miss Evemy’s heart, and she was rushed to Morriston Hospital – but she had suffered a “catastrophic and irreversible” brain injury, and could not be saved.
Harries, aged 22, of Panteg in Llanelli, had denied murdering his partner of seven months, saying he found her lying on the floor of the kitchen gravely wounded and covered in blood when he arrived at her home late on the afternoon of April 13 this year.
However, a jury of seven women and five men convicted him of murder following a two-week trial at Swansea Crown Court.
The court had heard that Miss Evemy suffered a serious stab wound to her liver and a slash to her throat which cut her windpipe – she lost so much blood she went into cardiac arrest, and her brain was starved of oxygen.
She also suffered multiple other wounds – including “defensive marks” on her arms sustained as she tried to fight Harries off – and was bitten on the arm during the assault.
The court heard that in the hours before the attack Miss Evemy had sent Harries text messages saying she was sick of arguing with him, and saying he did not make her happy any more.
Harries had also been in contact with a man Miss Evemy had kissed in a Llanelli nightclub the week before – with Harries masquerading as Miss Evemy during the text exchanges in a bid to find out what had happened.
Harries, jealous and “wound up”, took a knife from the kitchen of the house he shared with his mother and walked to his partner’s home, where he murdered her.
After stabbing her and leaving her lying in a pool of blood he ran out into the street and raised the alarm, telling neighbours he had arrived at Miss Evemy’s house to find she had been attacked.
But the trial heard expert evidence from Tim Harris, a consultant in emergency medicine from Queen Mary University in London, about the timing of the attack on the teenage mum.
He told the court the first paramedic arrived at Miss Evemy’s house at 5.53pm – and at that time Miss Evemy was in cardiac arrest.
He said he “cannot conceive” that the injuries suffered by Miss Evemy had happened longer than 30 minutes before the cardiac arrest – he estimated the time the injuries were inflicted would have been between 5.15pm and 5.30pm.
By the defendant’s own admissions, and taking timings from CCTV footage showing him walking to her house, Harries would have arrived at Miss Evemy’s house at around 5pm.
Harries’ DNA was also recovered on the murder weapon which was found near Miss Evemy – the court heard a knife with a very similar grooved, black handle was subsequently found in Harries’ house.
The bite mark on the victim’s arm was also proved to have been caused by Harries.
The judge in the case, Lady Justice Whipple, said she would sentence Harries on Monday, and the case was adjourned.