A woman who stabbed her neighbour with a serrated kitchen knife shouted “after my fella are you” in an unprovoked drunken rage, a court heard.
Katie Dalziel appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of wounding with intent, and of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. William Beardmore, prosecuting, detailed that on the evening of September 7, 2022, Laura Glannister was at her home on Clarendon Road, Anfield, when she heard “loud and inappropriate noises” coming from next door.
Her seven-year-old son was also home at the time and was woken up by the noise, so Ms Glannister went next door and a man came to the window. Ms Glannister asked him to keep the noise down and returned home, but the defendant soon turned up at her house and confronted her.
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Dalziel, 31, asked if Ms Glannister had knocked at “my fella’s door”, and then said “are you after my fella?”, to which Ms Glannister simply laughed and closed the door. She then heard a very loud commotion coming from next door, so called police, who came to the scene but left without detaining anybody.
In the early hours of the following morning after officers had left, the defendant shouted “grass” at Ms Glannister and said “I will shiv you” in the street. At 12.45am, she knocked on the victim’s house again, as soon as Ms Glannister opened the door, swung her arm in an uppercut motion at the victim, shouting “after my fella are you?".
Mr Beardmore said: “The victim recalled feeling pain and then blood coming down her face, before realising the defendant had used a weapon to strike her.” She was pulled inside her house by her partner, who tried to help with her wound but eventually had to be taken to hospital to treat the two centimetre laceration to her chin.
After the attack, Dalziel returned to her partner’s house, before they were both arrested at around 2am. Police noted the pair were clearly intoxicated, and Dalziel continued to make comments about Ms Glannister to officers.
Officers found a blood stained serrated kitchen knife behind a chair in the property, and the blood was later confirmed by forensic analysis to belong to Ms Glannister. A victim personal statement written by the victim was read by the prosecution, and detailed that she still has a visible scar on her face from the laceration.
It read: “It is very noticeable to me, it is on my face and I am a young woman and it makes me conscious. I can never really escape the memories of this attack, this assault was totally unprovoked and I did not deserve it.
“I am more wary when I go out, and I was worried she may return as she knows where I live.” Ms Glannister added that although she tried to hide the injury from her son on the night, he saw the train of blood from her front door to the bathroom and witnessed the aftermath.
Dalziel, of St Marks Road, Huyton, has no previous convictions, but did receive a caution for battery in 2018. John Rowan, defending, detailed that Dalziel is the primary carer for her two sons, one of whom has complex needs.
He said: “She is acutely aware of the serious nature of the offences which she has pleaded guilty to, she knows she may be leaving through a very different door than she entered in, and that has terrified her. She has to accept responsibility for what she did that night.
“What brings her the biggest degree of shame and disappointment in herself is that she has significant responsibilities in her life which she should have been thinking about when she consumed so much alcohol that evening that her recollection of events is somewhat blurred and engaged in this very serious offence.” Mr Rowan said this behaviour was out of character for the defendant, and she was extremely remorseful and ashamed of her actions.
In sentencing, His Honour Judge Denis Watson KC, said that Dalziel as “stabbing the victim in the face while drunk" was a severely aggravating feature of this offence. He said: “You had got yourself into such a state that you were intoxicated and came storming around to confront Laura Glannister.
“You had never seen her before and accused her of making some sort of approach to your partner. You attacked her when she was in her own home, this was an unprovoked attack.”
Dalziel was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, and an indefinite restraining order barring her from contacting the victim was imposed.
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