Come and get me before I kill him
What girl ‘told her father on phone while slashing student friend with kitchen knife’
A YOUNG woman attacked her friend with a kitchen knife – while on the phone to her father saying ‘you need to get me before I kill him’, a court has heard.
Stephanie Roberts, 20, who had taken a mix of alcohol and anti-psychotic drugs, slashed student Ravi Benitez, 19, across the face with a 6in blade.
She was on the phone to her father during the attack, crying out for him to pick her up from Mr Benitez’s flat.
Roberts admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm when she appeared at Warwick Crown Court.
She had known Mr Benitez for several years when she travelled from her home in South Kensington, London, to visit him at Warwick University.
The court was told she had taken anti-psychotic drug Xanax before going out drinking with Mr Benitez and his friends on November 24 last year. When they returned to Mr Benitez’s flat, which he shared with other students, he took her to a bedroom where she was to spend the night, before going to his own room.
Roberts was in a ‘highly emotional state’ and wanted to call her father but her phone was not working, so Mr Benitez lent her his own. But she then armed herself with the knife and began to kick and slash at Mr Benitez’s door.
The court heard that Roberts pointed the knife at Mr Benitez, telling him: ‘I’d rather kill the person who’s f***** me up the most – you. I’m not emotional. I’m letting things out. You tried to possess me.’
She then called her father on the phone, and told him: ‘If you knew what was happening to me, you would come and get me right now, as a father. You need to get me before I kill him, you need to get me right now.’
One of Mr Benitez’s flatmates called security, and when officers arrived they saw blood on the walls from a cut to Roberts’s thumb and broken glass on the floor. Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said: ‘Plainly it was the case that Mr Benitez had nowhere to go, and when they came in he was backed up on his bed.’
A security guard was recorded on his body camera pleading with Roberts to drop the knife, saying: ‘You’ll make it a hell of a lot worse.’ But continuing to speak to her father, she replied: ‘I’m not putting anything down until you come and get me. I will kill Ravi, OK?’
She then lunged at Mr Benitez, slashing his face and his hand as he tried to protect himself, yelling: ‘You lied to me, you liar.’
Still on the phone, she screamed: ‘Get me now if you don’t want your daughter to be in jail.’ Mr
‘Her reactions are so out of control’
Benitez suffered slash wounds before a guard managed to wrestle the blade out of Roberts’s hands.
After she was arrested, she told police one of Mr Benitez’s friends had said she was ‘crazy’, which triggered the confrontation.
Deputy Judge Phillip Wassall said: ‘Having seen that [bodycam footage], it emphasises the importance of us seeing it. Her reactions are so bizarre and so out of control.’ He adjourned the case to a future date and bailed Roberts.