Teacher stabbed woman 15 times after she rejected him

A teacher has been jailed for stabbing a woman after she told him she did not want a relationship.

Matthew Jones, 29, stabbed fellow teacher Emma Kirk, 25, more than 15 times, inflicting life-threatening injuries to her neck, face and head.

Jones attacked Ms Kirk in Bath on 26 February last year when she returned gifts he had bought her after telling him that she did not want to see him again, Bristol Crown Court heard.

The "brutal and frenzied" attack only ended when five men dragged Jones away from his victim, but jurors heard he still tried to grab and strangle Ms Kirk as he was being pulled back.

"Both of her lungs were punctured. She tried to fight back and she suffered multiple wounds to her hands as she grabbed at the blade," Sam Jones, prosecuting, said.

He added that witnesses described the knife-wielding teacher as a "man possessed".

Jones was found not guilty of attempted murder and having an article with a blade or point in a public place, but admitted causing Ms Kirk grievous bodily harm.

Jones claimed to police the knife had been brought to the scene by Miss Kirk, and he had taken it from her when they began to struggle.

Defending, Michael Haynes said Jones had shown the "appropriate level of remorse that one would expect" and "is all too conscious of what happened, and it shouldn't have happened".

The court saw footage of Ms Kirk saying "I am going to die" and of Jones telling officers arresting him that he was "a monster" who didn't "deserve" respect.

Jurors were told that Jones and Ms Kirk had met at university and became "really good friends" before being "intimate on one or two occasions".

But when Ms Kirk "made it clear she did not want a relationship", Jones allegedly developed an "unhealthy obsession" with her.

"He could not take her 'no' to him as an answer, so he decided that if she did not want to be with him, she wouldn't be with anyone else," the prosecutor said.

Ms Kirk said in a victim impact statement that the attack left her "terrified for mine and my family's safety" after waking up from a week-long coma.

She said she developed PTSD and depression and had been unable to work for a year.

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"One of the hardest things is trying to comprehend is that someone I trusted, a fellow teacher, could act in such a way," she said.

Judge Julian Lambert said the sentence needed to be adjusted for Jones's "previous good character" and the effort he was making in jail but he remained "dangerous", and sentenced him to 12 years in prison with four years on extended licence as a result, on Friday.

Judge Lambert said: "What you did was so unpredictable and so mercilessly fierce and persistent I'm afraid... I consider you will remain unpredictable for some very considerable time in spite of the good work you're doing in prison."

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