A woman asked a police officer ‘am I gonna die?’ after her boyfriend stabbed her 18 times, a murder trial has heard.
Rebekah Campbell, 32, was fatally assaulted inside her own home in Huyton, Merseyside on April 15 this year.
Michael Ormandy went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today accused of her murder following his arrest minutes after Ms Campbell’s death.
The 34-year-old denied the charge, claiming to have acted in self-defence, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The court heard Ms Campbell shouted ‘I’ve been stabbed’ as a result of the ‘sustained and violent assault’ before collapsing outside the block of flats.
When neighbours rushed to her aid she is said to have told them: ‘My fella stabbed me.’
Ormandy is said to have told police during his arrest ‘this wouldn’t have happened if you did your job last week’, referring to a previous altercation between the couple days before in Liverpool city centre during a night out.
David McLachlan KC told a jury of nine men and three women during the prosecution’s opening: ‘In the late evening, Rebekah Campbell was on the phone to her friend Faye Henderson. She was at home in her flat in Huyton, talking in general terms to Faye Henderson. That was something they would do regularly.
Rebekah Campbell (pictured), 32, was fatally assaulted inside her own home in Huyton, Merseyside on April 15 this year
‘While they were talking on the phone, Faye Henderson suddenly heard Rebekah Campbell shouting something along the lines of “go away, get out Mick”.
‘She then heard a loud bang and puppies barking in the background.’
Ms Henderson was said to have not heard anything else and rang 999 after growing concerned about her friend.
It is alleged that inside the flat on the fifth floor, Ormandy had stabbed Ms Campbell ‘many, many times’.
Ms Henderson arrived at the scene around 15 minutes later to find her friend on the ground outside being treated for multiple stab wounds by police and paramedics, the court heard.
Ms Campbell was taken to hospital but sadly died in the early hours of Friday April 16.
Ormandy and Ms Campbell were together for around four months prior to her death, with Ms Henderson reporting the relationship ‘was not going well’ and her friend was ‘ready to end it’, the court heard.
Another friend of the victim, Josh Collins, said the relationship had ‘changed’ as it went on with Ormandy allegedly known to call Ms Campbell a ‘s**g’ or ‘just stand at the bar and stare at her’.
Merseyside Police gave first aid to Ms Campbell after receiving reports of a stabbing at Knowsley Heights, Huyton, (pictured) on Tuesday evening before she died in hospital
The witness also said he had ‘seen them together before, arguing and pushing’ on previous occasions.
Three days earlier, Ms Campbell threw a shoe at her boyfriend and slapped him while they were out drinking, it was claimed.
In a second ‘heated incident’ the same night, the deceased was seen ‘kicking out’ at Ormandy before he hit her in the face, the court heard.
On the night of the stabbing, Ormandy was said to have been seen entering Ms Campbell’s apartment complex while she was on the phone to Ms Henderson.
Ms Henderson was reportedly unaware Ormandy had planned to visit before she heard the ‘loud bang’ and ‘puppies barking’.
The jury heard a neighbour saw Ms Campbell collapse to the ground outside, with her yellow tank top left covered in blood, on looking out of her window.
When placed in the back of an ambulance, Ms Campbell was said to have asked ‘am I gonna die?’ as she was transported to Aintree hospital which led an officer to reply: ‘You are hurt, but you are in the best place now.’
The following day at 12.46am Ms Campbell was pronounced dead – with Ormandy being arrested six minutes earlier, initially on suspicion of attempted murder.
A mobile phone was then recovered from the canal after Ormandy had allegedly ‘tried to ditch’ the device.
He was interviewed at Copy Lane Police Station the following evening.
In a prepared statement, Ormandy said of the April 12 incident that ‘everyone was drunk, but Rebekah was more out of control than the others’, adding she ‘had slapped him across the face’.
He claimed to have then ‘struck out in self-defence’ when she attacked him for a second time.
Speaking of the night of Ms Campbell’s death, Ormandy claimed she had ‘immediately’ screamed ‘I’ve got a knife’ when he had entered the property, claiming he’d seen a weapon in her right hand.
He said he then disarmed Ms Campbell, and that she ‘remained on top of him and was attacking him’ and that he ‘responded by punching her to her body in self-defence’ and then pushed her onto the couch.
Ormandy wore a white short-sleeved shirt and red tie in the dock and had a shaved head.
He told detectives in a second interview he had been wearing gloves following the incident as he had ‘blood p***ing out of his hand’.
Speaking on Ms Henderson, he claimed she was ‘jealous’ due to Ms Campbell spending ‘more time with me than with her’.
In a further prepared statement, Ormandy said there would have been ‘no further incident’ had police arrested Rebekah Campbell on April 12.
He stated he had been staying at his girlfriend’s home ‘at her request’ for two-and-a-half weeks after she had given him a spare key.
A Home Office post-mortem investigation showed Ms Campbell had sustained a total of 27 ‘incised wounds’ during a ‘sustained, violent assault’.
These comprised 18 stab wounds and nine slash wounds.
A pathologist found this to be ‘in keeping with the use of severe force’ – with injuries on her left arm also said to be indicative of defence injuries as she tried to fend off the attack’.
Her cause of death was determined as being stab wounds to the chest.
Mr McLachlan concluded the prosecution’s case by alleging Ormandy had gone into Ms Campbell’s flat and attacked her with a knife, stabbing her ‘many, many times’ in ‘what must have been a sustained and violent assault’.
The prosecution alleged the ‘intention was clear at the outset’ to ‘kill’ rather than ’cause really serious harm’, given the number of wounds.
Ormandy, represented by Nick Johnson KC and Daniel Travers, denies one count of murder.
The trial continues and is expected to last for around two weeks.
