Woman was left with a punctured lung after stabbing by ex-neighbour
A WOMAN stabbed her former neighbour several times and punctured her lung after driving her vehicle into the victim’s car, a court has heard.
Video footage played to the court showed the victim screaming as she was attacked, and left with her finger hanging off her hand.
Shelley Bowen, 36, stabbed Felicity Symes outside her home in Bridgend on September 4 last year after mounting tensions between the two former neighbours came to a head.
Ms Symes was left seriously injured by a six-inch knife brandished by the defendant, who fled the scene.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, April 5, heard Ms Symes and Bowen fell out due to the latter’s anti-social behaviour and parenting.
The victim was outside her home in Bryncethin on the evening of September 4 when the defendant drove up in an orange BMW M3 and drove directly into her parked Kia.
Children witnessed the collision but were quickly removed from the street as Ms Symes confronted Bowen for her manner of driving.
She could be heard saying “Are you f****** serious?” and “What the f*** are you doing?”.
The defendant got out of the car armed with a six-inch kitchen knife and proceeded to stab Ms Symes several times.
Prosecutor Owen Williams said Ms Symes recalled a number of punches being thrown and “blood spraying everywhere”, but had no idea she had been stabbed until she “saw her finger hanging off her hand”.
She realised she had suffered serious lacerations to her hand, arm and chest.
The emergency services were called as Bowen got back into her car and drove off.
Paramedics and police attended the scene, and the weapon was discovered in a bush.
Ms Symes was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, where she was treated for a puncture wound to her right breast which had penetrated her lung, a slash wound to the left side of her chest, several wounds to her hands and a wound to her left arm.
Police arrested Bowen at her mother’s home in Aberkenfig at 11.30pm and when interviewed, she admitted assaulting Ms Symes.
She claimed she had picked up the knife in her home in order to puncture the victim’s tyres, and said she had not intended to drive into her car.
Bowen, of Highland Avenue, Bryncethin, pleaded guilty to wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm, and dangerous driving.
The court heard she had one previous conviction for obstructing a police officer and driving with no insurance.
In a victim personal statement read to the court, Ms Symes said: “Since this incident occurred it has literally turned my life upside down, I’ve not been myself and I’m so traumatised by this incident, it has affected me and my two young girls...
“Since this incident I have not been sleeping at all, any little noise from outside and I begin to panic and stress out.
“I have frightening nightmares and I wake up at all times of the night.
“The nightmares are of me being attacked and I relive the entire incident again.
“Due to the injuries, I have not been able to drive my car and I am left feeling trapped inside my house.
“I go on walks but feel on edge and looking over my shoulder.
“I feel isolated in my house, which has not been good for my mental health.”
In mitigation, Julia Cox outlined her client’s mental health difficulties, which included a likely diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder.
The barrister said the defendant had an inability to properly and rationally process situations.
She said Bowen has two children who she had seen sparsely following her remand in prison, and that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer, which has made her mental health worse. At the time of the offence, she was addicted to drugs, and had been using heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine and cannabis.
Judge Lucy Crowther sentenced Bowen to a total of four years’ imprisonment. She was also disqualified from driving for four years.