James McKenna (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
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A 58-year-old man who hid in bushes waiting for his former partner, then stabbed her repeatedly in a Carmarthen park, has been given a 24-year prison sentence.
According to BBC Wales, James McKenna was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Friday for the attempted murder of Joanne Sidaway, 49. He will spend two thirds of the term in prison before being released on licence.
The verdict
McKenna had already admitted wounding with intent earlier this year. In July, he was found guilty of attempted murder.
The judge’s remarks
Judge Paul Thomas KC said the attack had been planned. He also said McKenna had left his victim to die. Passing sentence, he told him:
“You had been in a relationship with a woman of whose vulnerabilities you would have been fully aware.
“When she decided, as was entirely her prerogative, that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with you, you reacted, as you had done in the past, immaturely, and more significantly with violence.
“You stalked her in the park in Carmarthen that morning, then you returned in the afternoon with exactly the same intention. It was planned, and it was wholly calculated.
“You stabbed her no fewer than 11 times. Three of those being to the chest and therefore heart area.
“That lady only survived because it was a cold day and she was wearing five layers under a thick coat. But after you did that, you left her to die in bushes in a park.
“You only handed yourself in when you developed frostbite from sleeping rough.”
The judge also described McKenna as “full of self-pity”.
The attack
The court heard McKenna had been “angry” since the relationship ended a few months earlier.
On 29 January, he waited for Sidaway to come into the park with her dog. He then crouched down in the bushes, ready to attack. He had taken a new, sharp knife from his kitchen.
Neighbour Susan Edwards described hearing “high-pitched screaming” and the “bushes shaking” before McKenna ran off.
Sidaway called for an ambulance herself. During the call, she said: “I’ve been stabbed by my ex-partner… he’s been stalking me.”
Police bodycam footage showed her sitting on her doorstep with paramedics, covered in blood. She was injured to her chest, arm and hand. Her clothing was heavily bloodstained, and her coat had 17 separate areas of damage.
The court heard it was “luck” that she survived, and that her winter coat helped to save her.
Four days on the run
After running from the park, McKenna ate yoghurt at a nearby allotment. He left his rucksack and the knife there.
From there, he walked three miles (4km) along the River Gwili to Bronwydd. He took shelter among the trees there.
“I found some shelter, a quiet woodland away from the road,” he said.
“I was devastated and kept having flashbacks.”
He spent three nights in the woods without food or water. He then caught a taxi and a bus to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. He was arrested there while being treated for frostbite, bringing a four-day manhunt to an end.
McKenna’s account
McKenna told the court he had meant to cause Sidaway “serious harm” but did not intend to kill her. He accepted that he stabbed her several times in “a rage of anger”, and said he was “shocked” by what he had done.
“I felt she was reluctant to re-engage with me, and not even say hello,” he said.
“I was aiming for her shoulder area and the upper body. I didn’t want to kill her.”
He said he stopped when Sidaway screamed and told him to stop, and a neighbour shouted.
Previous conviction and mitigation
McKenna has a previous conviction from August 2016 for assaulting an ex-partner. On that occasion, he pushed her neck and pulled her hair.
James Wilson, prosecuting, said this showed McKenna was “unwilling to accept the end of that relationship”.
Caroline Rees KC, defending, said McKenna had shown “remorse” and “regret”.
Reaction
Lucy Mansfield, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McKenna’s actions were cold and calculated, deliberately taking a knife to a public place to attack his ex-partner.
“He committed a shocking act of violence, which must have been terrifying for the victim.
“We will continue to work with our partners in the criminal justice system to tackle these abhorrent offences.”
Sara Kirkpatrick, chief executive of Welsh Women’s Aid, called the attack “carefully planned”.
“Sadly, post-separation abuse, stalking, following a domestically abusive relationship is remarkably common,” she said.
“While we can ask ourselves how we make our spaces and places safer, this was an intentional act by an individual who made a plan and chose a place, and identified where his victim would be.”
She said this was why the charity campaigns for social change, “so that we don’t find ourselves in a place where individuals think that pursuing vengeance in this manner is an acceptable route”.
