Ysgol Dyffryn Aman school attack: Girl told teacher ‘I’m going to kill you,’ trial hears
A teenager told a teacher “I’m going to f****** kill you” as she attacked her at a school in Wales, a trial has heard.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies the attempted murder of two teachers and a pupil at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman School – also known as Amman Valley School – in Carmarthenshire, West Wales.
She has admitted wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article on school grounds, but faces trial on three counts of attempted murder.
A jury of seven men and five women was sworn in on Monday morning at Swansea Crown Court and was told by Judge Paul Thomas KC that a previous trial in the case had to be abandoned for “various reasons”.
The court heard there had been a “serious episode of violence” at the school during the mid-morning school break on 24 April last year.
Prosecuting, William Hughes KC, said teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin were “seriously injured after being repeatedly stabbed”.
On a previous occasion, after a knife was found in the defendant’s possession, she was excluded from school “for a number of days”, and the school was given permission to carry out “daily bag checks”.
But on the morning of 24 April, the court heard how the defendant had “left the family home before her father could check her bag”.
(L-R) Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin. Pics: Dyfed-Powys Police
The jury was told that, prior to the incident, the defendant was in the lower school hall, but “did not have permission” to be there, and that when Mrs Elias told her this, the girl looked at her with “sinister eyes” and “appeared to be playing with something in the right-side pocket of her cargo trousers”.
Later that morning, in an outdoor area near the lower hall, the teenager pulled out what Mrs Elias described as “a penknife with a silver tip to it”, while she was speaking to both her and Mrs Hopkin.
The prosecution said the knife used in the attack turned out to be a “multi-tool” taken without permission from her father’s fishing equipment.
Mr Hughes told the jury: “Mrs Elias asked about her [the defendant’s] trousers which were not school uniform.
“There was an exchange between them about contacting her father, which she did not want.
“Mrs Elias then said she wasn’t happy with the way [the girl] was looking at her and asked what she had in her pocket.
“She said: ‘Do you want to see?’ and pulled out an item with a silver blade.
“On pulling out the knife, she said to Mrs Elias ‘I am going to kill you, I am going to f****** kill you’, and then she started to stab her.”
She also attacked Ms Hopkin, before rushing past two male teachers and running at the other pupil.
Both Mrs Elias and Mrs Hopkin, who attempted to restrain the defendant, “received significant and serious injuries”.
Mrs Hopkin was the most seriously injured of the two with “four stab wounds”, and she was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Mrs Elias and the pupil also attended hospital for treatment.
Ammanford in Carmarthenshire
Members of the jury were shown CCTV footage of the incident as the prosecution opened its case on Monday.
After her arrest, Mr Hughes said the defendant made “significant, unsolicited comments” in the back of the police vehicle on the way to the police station.
The comments were captured on body-worn camera footage.
Referring to the pupil, she said: “I stabbed her… oopsies”.
She then said: “I suppose things like this don’t happen often”, and later asked: ‘Are they dead?’
“I’m pretty sure this is going to be on the news, so more eyes will be looking at me, that’s one way to be a celebrity,” she added.
She later asked officers, “How am I going to face my family after what I’ve done?”
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After her arrest, police officers attended her home address where they found drawings with comments including “burning a person”, “they could die”, “cut their mouths and eyes” and “to death”.
Officers also found a drawing of what was described as “Mrs Frog Face Elias”.
The trial continues.
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
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“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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