A BRECON woman who twice stabbed her boyfriend in the back has been cleared of attacking him.
A jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court accepted Hayley Parrish had been acting in self defence when she plunged the 14" kitchen knife into the back of her then boyfriend, Lee Grinham during a fight at an address in Brecon on April 5 this year.
The jury of eight women and four men delivered a not guilty verdict to a charge that 29-year-old Ms Parrish had wounded the 21-year-old with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm (GBH) and also cleared her of an alternative charge of unlawful wounding.
Ms Parrish had told the jury she had feared for her own safety and that of others in the house, including another woman, who the trial heard Mr Grinham had apparently knocked unconscious, and children. Ms Parrish and Mr Grinham had been drinking vodka and cokes and the other woman was also drinking.
A seven-year-old girl, who witnessed the incident, had told the court an argument began when Mr Grinham had hit a tablet computer with his head and thrown it against a chair.
That argument between Mr Grinham, and a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, escalated with the woman throwing a phone at Mr Grinham's head, which he handed back to her.
Ms Parrish, who had fallen asleep, then woke up and at some point and with the other woman pulled at Mr Grinham's shirt and his hair, after he kicked a wall.
The girl said Mr Grinham had struck the unnamed woman to the ground and also put Ms Parrish to the floor by smashing the living room door against her head and repeatedly closing it on her as she lay on the floor.
She also told the jury Mr Grinham had struck another child on the head.
The girl said Mr Grinham was standing over the other woman when Ms Parrish stabbed him: "He was calling her name and shaking her a bit. I think Hayley must have gone to the kitchen to get a sharp knife and stabbed Liam in the back."
In a recorded statement shown to the jury on screens in the courtroom the girl was asked how she felt during the incident, she replied 'sad and not very happy'.
She added: "I thought it was quite mean of Liam, I think he started it, he was the first one to shout."
Mr Grinham, who underwent emergency surgery after his lung was punctured, only woke up five days later, at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff. He told the court he had no recollection of the incident or of hitting either Ms Parrish, the unnamed woman or the child.
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