Boyfriend jailed for life after stabbing teen mum in front of her toddler
AJEALOUS boyfriend has been jailed for life after stabbing a teenage mother in a frenzied attack carried out in front of her toddler daughter who was left covered in her mother’s blood and traumatised.
Katrina Evemy died in hospital six days after suffering “horrific” injuries including being stabbed in both eyes, her throat, and forehead by her on-off boyfriend Dylan Harries.
The 22-year-old was in a “rage” after finding out she had kissed another man a few weeks before while they were not together.
Harries denied murder during his trial at Swansea Crown Court but was found guilty after a jury heard how he had taken a knife from his mother’s house and walked to where Ms Evemy, 19, lived on Craig Avenue, Llanelli, on April 13.
Jurors were shown CCTV of Harries adjusting the knife in his hand during the 40-minute walk and heard how he claimed a stranger had attacked Ms Evemy, despite medical evidence proving he must have been there when she was attacked.
Sentencing Harries yesterday, Mrs Justice Whipple said: “Katrina was a single mum, devoted to bringing up her daughter. Katrina herself came from a large family being one of six siblings. By all accounts she was funloving and spirited.
“She had a very great deal to live for and look forward to.
“You, Dylan Harries, rubbed out her life and all her dreams, expectations and hopes.”
Harries, who worked as a chaperone for people with special needs who travel by taxi, was sentenced to a minimum term of 27 years.
Mrs Justice Whipple said aggravating features of the case were the nature of Miss Evemy’s injuries – which she described as “horrific” and as having “elements of sadism” – and the presence of her daughter during the attack.
“The witnesses, including experienced paramedics and police officers spoke of their shock at seeing such a terrible neck wound,” she said. “Then there were the stab wounds to both eyes.
“Although the treating doctors’ first priority was to seek to keep Katrina alive – something that despite their best efforts they were unable to do – the wounds to her eyes left them uncertain whether... she would ever be able to see again... they reflect a depraved intention not just to kill but to maim.”
Of Ms Evemy’s daughter, Mrs Justice Whipple said: “The child became covered in her mother’s blood.
“The forensic scientists found spots of airborne blood on her clothing which can only mean that she was so close to her mother at some point during the attack that the spots of blood carried through the air to land on her own clothing.
“By the time the paramedics managed to take her away she was pale, silent and staring into space.”
In a victim impact statement Ms Evemy’s mother, Amanda Jane Simon, said the attack had left her two-year-old grand-daughter without a “mother, home or any belongings”.
She said the child screamed every time someone mentioned her mother’s name, would not acknowledge her in photographs and had suffered “many sleepless nights when she would lay awake and cry”.
Mrs Simon said: “On Thursday April 13, 2017, the family of Katrina rushed to Morriston Hospital after finding out that she had been stabbed multiple times. When I arrived at the hospital; with the rest of my family Katrina was in theatre.
“She was unconscious and I was told by the doctor that they didn’t expect her to pull through because of the extent of her injuries. When Katrina was brought out of theatre she was unrecognisable. It was like a horror film that the whole family was stuck in and could not get out of.”
Mrs Simon said she still thought about the injuries every time she looked at a photo of her daughter and the whole family, including Ms Evemy’s siblings, had struggled since her death.
The court heard that Miss Evemy had been in an on-off relationship with Harries for a few months prior to her death.
The jury heard that, on the day of the attack, Harries found the number of the man Miss Evemy had kissed in her phone and started to send messages to him, pretending to be her, until the other man said they had kissed.
Then Harries sent a message saying: “Strange this is her boyfriend and she denied it.”
The court heard that Harries, of Panteg, Felinfoel, Llanelli, stayed in the house for around 45 minutes without contacting the emergency services before raising the alarm with neighbours and claiming Miss Evemy had been attacked before he arrived.
Miss Evemy died in hospital on April 19 without regaining consciousness, having suffered two fatal injuries including the wounds in her neck, which severed her left vocal cord, and a wound to her abdomen, which injured her liver.
The blood loss from those injuries caused a cardiac arrest which resulted in irreversible brain damage and then brain stem death.
Mrs Justice Whipple said the evidence against Harries was “overwhelming”, adding: “There was evidence from a professor of emergency medicine that Katrina had sustained the fatal injuries only shortly before she went into cardiac arrest, putting the attack squarely in the window when you were with her.”