Teachers thought they were ‘going to die’ in Ammanford school stabbing

Two teachers who were stabbed by a 14-year-old pupil at a Welsh school thought they were going to die, a court has heard.

Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, and a student, were injured in the attack in April, at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, also known as Amman Valley School, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously admitted wounding with intent but has denied attempted murder.

Both teachers told police they thought they were going to die in the attack, and Liz Hopkin, who was stabbed in the neck, said she thought: “This is it.”

Swansea Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the girl attacking the teachers, and police interviews with those injured, as the trial resumed on Wednesday.

She could be seen talking to the teachers outside the main school building before launching an attack on Ms Elias, as Ms Hopkin attempted to restrain her.

She then stabbed Ms Hopkin in the leg and was able to wrestle free, dropping the knife.

The teenager then picked up the knife again and began attacking Ms Hopkin.

The jury was shown police interview footage with the teachers after the stabbing.

Ms Elias, an assistant head at the school, described the girl as “very menacing” while she played with something in the right pocket of her black cargo trousers.

The teacher said she had been concerned because the girl had previously taken a knife into school.

Ms Elias asked her what she was playing with, to which she replied “do you want to see what’s in my pocket?” before bringing out the knife and beginning to stab Ms Elias, saying, “I’m going to f****** kill you”.

The teacher said: “I thought I was going to die, I thought that was it.

“I tried to restrain her; I remember holding her arms.

“Her face – she had lost it, the red mist had come down, she had completely lost it.”

At that point Ms Hopkin, who was holding the pupil, shouted, “Fiona, just go”.

Asked to describe the girl before the attack, Ms Elias said: “Very distant, very menacing.

“Just looking at me like she was going to do something to me, in a way she was looking through me.”

She described being unsure what injuries she had suffered until she was sitting in the office and had taken off the yellow high-vis jacket she had been wearing.

A colleague gave her first aid before paramedics arrived and she was taken to Morriston Hospital.

She sustained injuries to the top of her right arm and left bicep, and a small cut to her left hand.

Ms Hopkin told police she had never met the teenager before but described her as acting “really strangely”.

She told the police: “She just said, ‘do you want to see what’s in my pocket?’ It was very deadpan and she then just got a knife out of her pocket and went to stab Fiona.

“I wasn’t quick enough to stop her. I was trying to hold her arms down.

“You could see that it was (Ms Elias) that she was after, so I said, ‘Fiona, go go go’.

“I thought, I can’t let go, but because she had a jacket on I couldn’t get a grip.

“She stabbed me in the leg, that was the first place I got stabbed.”

As the girl picked the knife up again, Ms Hopkin said she remembered the girl coming up to her “face on” and stabbing her in the neck.

“I remember thinking shit, this is it, she stabbed me,” she said.

“I was just shouting for help, in hindsight I should have shouted ‘knife’, I think people would have moved quicker, I could see the kids and I was just thinking people are going to get hurt.”

As she tried to get away the girl stabbed her twice in the back.

Both the teachers got away from the scene, temporarily leaving the girl on her own.

She added: “I’m glad to be alive and I’m really glad Fiona is alive. I feel if I hadn’t intervened, she could be dead now.”

Ms Hopkin was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff by air ambulance for treatment.

Assistant headteacher Stephen Hagget told the jury he had attempted to calm the girl down, having been told there had been a fight.

Giving evidence from the witness box, he said: “As I approached her, I saw she was holding a knife in her right hand.

“I stayed about six feet (from her) I told her to calm down and asked her to pass me the knife.”

He said the girl told him she would kill Ms Elias if she saw her again.

Mr Hagget was joined by fellow teacher Darrel Campbell, who tried to help calm the girl down.

He said the teenager broke away from them, running at a pupil and trying to make “a couple of attempts” to stab the other girl.

Mr Hagget then tried to give the pupil first aid, leading her from the scene.

The jury also heard from Mr Campbell, a former assistant head, who had been asked to return to the school after retirement.

Mr Campbell said he had not seen the knife initially and had tried to lead the girl into the administration building, to get her away from the crowds.

He said: “She turned around and looked at another group of pupils, 10 to 15 pupils, that were standing about 10 yards away by the admin block.

“She turned to look at them, she let out a horrific scream, ‘I’m going to kill you, you bitch’.

“The scream was like something out of a horror movie.”

As she began to hit her fellow pupil, Mr Campbell said he managed to restrain her, holding on to her for some time before another teacher managed to take the knife from her.

The jury was also shown footage from a police interview with the pupil who was stabbed in the incident.

She told police: “I turn back round and she’s just running at me with a knife, I don’t remember everything that happened, I just know that I was on the floor and she was trying to stab me.”

The girl was stabbed in the arm and was scratched on her side and hand.

The trial continues on Thursday.