‘Agitated’ young woman threatened friends with kitchen knife during row

A ‘HIGHLY agitated and aggressive’ young woman threatened her housemate and another friend with a large kitchen knife after she was accused of having an affair, a court heard.

Zorah Parveen lived on Rothwell Avenue in Accrington with Jessica Oliver when an argument broke out on the evening of September 10 last year.

Prosecutor Judith McCullough told Preston Crown Court that Parveen had engaged in ‘sexual contact’ with the boyfriend of neighbour Molly Radcliffe and there had ‘been a falling out’.

When student nursery nurse Parveen returned to the address with her own boyfriend, Ms Radcliffe ‘played a recording’ to the defendant.

The court heard that Parveen, 20, screamed at the woman and told her boyfriend ‘I didn’t cheat on you’ before running upstairs.

Miss McCullough said Parveen pulled a large kitchen knife from the top of her wardrobe and when Miss Oliver went to Parveen’s bedroom ‘to see what the problem was’ the defendant started ‘waving’ it in the victim’s face.

Parveen shouted ‘stay away from me’ and left Miss Oliver ‘feeling scared and genuinely thinking she was going to be stabbed’.

The court heard how Parveen’s boyfriend then attempted to intervene before leaving the property and that Miss Oliver’s friend Jordan Schofield then came upstairs because she was ‘concerned’.

Miss McCullough said when Parveen saw Miss Schofield she ‘held the knife about an inch from [Miss Schofield’s] face’ before screaming and shouting threats and abuse towards her.

Parveen then opened her bedroom window and shouted ‘you stupid slag, I told you to leave it’.

The court heard how the abuse was directed at the home of her neighbour who had returned to the property after the incident started.

Richard Dawson, defending, said Parveen ‘lost her temper and acted inappropriately’ but it was ‘out of character’.

He said: “The offence itself was borne out of an argument because of engagement by her with a boyfriend of her neighbour.”

Parveen pleaded guilty to affray and was given a 12-month community order with 100 hours unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement.