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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Kieren Williams

Dramatic moment police rescue teacher stabbed 29 times and left for dead by boyfriend

This is the dramatic moment police smashed through a window to rescue a woman who had been stabbed 29 times and left to die by her boyfriend.

Martina Turner, 54, was targeted by her partner Steven Wood, 55, in a frenzied attack that he threatened would “finish her off”.

He stabbed her 29 times, forcing her to hide in a cupboard in a desperate bid to survive.

After the horrific attack, Wood locked her in the house, in Winlaton Mill, Gateshead, leaving her to die, and with the large kitchen knife still embedded in her chest, Tina hid in a cupboard, until help arrived.

Footage from Northumbria Police shows the moments officers had to smash through a window and break into her house in a desperate attempt to save her.

Police had to smash in a window to get into the property and save Martina (Northumbria Police)

One neighbour looks on as an officer uses what appears to be a baton to smash open a window.

They then have to clear the jagged glass from the frame before they can climb through into the kitchen.

As officers search through the house, you can see splatters of what appears to be blood on the floor when find Martina.

The college lecturer met Wood online in 2019 and as their relationship developed she invited him to live with her when Covid restrictions were introduced.

Wood was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years following the attack (Great North Air Ambulance)
The knife, still embedded in Martina's chest even when she was in hospital (Great North Air Ambulance)

But just months later in May 2021, he turned on her and left her with multiple stab wounds, a bleed on her heart, two broken ribs and a burn on her leg.

He stabbed her so hard at one point that the blade snapped, only for him to pick up another knife to continue the brutal assault.

Recounting the harrowing attack, Tina said: "He said he had to finish me off'. That is a sentence I will never forget. I never ever thought a person could be capable of doing that.

Martina was attacked by her partner and left for dead (Newcastle Chronicle)

"I have no feelings towards that man now. My brain has switched it off. I just feel empty. There's no hate and no pity, I just want to know why.”

Covid travel restrictions placed doubt on an overseas trip the pair had planned, causing Wood, who has bipolar, to become agitated.

Then on May 21, as they watched the news together hoping for some certainty, Tina could sense something was wrong with her partner and decided to leave him alone for a bit.

"Somehow I could feel unease," she said. "So I said 'I'm just going out for a while."

Martina was stabbed 29 times in the horror attack (North News & Pictures Ltd northnews.co.uk)

But then Wood flipped, armed himself with a kitchen knife and stabbed Tina from behind.

"I can remember him shouting from behind me; 'you go nowhere'," she said. "Then he got the knife out. I didn't register what had happened, until I saw the blood running down my T-shirt on the front.”

As mum-of-three Tina desperately tried to defend herself, she attempted to reason with Wood, asking him to talk to her and telling him to think of his family.

"He said; 'I need to finish you off because I'm not going to prison for you,'" she said. "I begged for my life. At that point I thought, I needed to be really smart.

Wood being rescued by police from the River Tyne in Newcastle after he jumped from the Redheugh Bridge after fleeing Martina's house following his brutal attack on her (North News & Pictures Ltd northnews.co.uk)

"I suggested he phone his son, because his son is everything to him. He grabbed his phone and stabbed me with the Jamie Oliver knife in the chest.”

Tina tried to escape Wood's attack by hiding in a cupboard, but as she did so she fell backwards, breaking two ribs.

“He held onto me with the knife while he spoke to his son on the phone," Tina continued. "He broke down, cried and said; 'I have done something really bad.'”

Meanwhile Tina tried to whisper down the phone asking Wood's son to call an ambulance and telling him she had been stabbed.

Then Wood let go of the knife and left the house, locking both the back and front doors as he went.

"My hands were very, very slippery from all the blood but I managed to get my phone out, put it on the electricity meter box, and dial 999," said Tina.

"A really lovely woman stayed with me on the phone until the paramedics came. At that point I hadn't realised he had locked me in."

Wood was jailed for life for attempted murder and must serve at least 12 years before he can apply for parole.

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