Man jailed for knife attack claiming he was paid to kill

A Carmarthenshire man has been jailed after subjecting a woman to a terrifying ordeal in which he repeatedly held a knife to her throat and told her he’d been paid £5,000 to kill her.

Mark Webber, 45, of Market Street, Whitland, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, strangulation, and making threats with a bladed article in a private place following the incident in May this year.

Swansea Crown Court heard the defendant and his victim had only been in a relationship for a matter of weeks when an argument erupted because she refused to go to the shops to buy him alcohol.

Webber struck the woman to the face, causing her nose to bleed, before leaving and returning with whisky and lager. After both consumed alcohol, another comment set Webber off – he kicked the woman in the face, armed himself with a large kitchen knife, and called her a “grass” and a “lying rat”.

The court heard he grabbed her by the hair, pulled her head back, and held the blade to her throat, asking: “Do you really want to see what grasses get?” He then cut her from her ear to her throat.

Prosecutor Emily Bennett told the court Webber taunted his victim, telling her he had been paid £5,000 upfront to kill her with another £5,000 to be paid when she was dead, adding he would be paid more if he raped her.

The defendant said: “I need to be stopped before this goes too far” before warning that police “wouldn’t even make it as far as the street before I slice you up and burn this house down”.

Throughout the evening, Webber put the knife to the woman’s throat on several occasions and repeatedly kicked and punched her. He told her that if she reported the incident to police, he would claim she had raped him. When she laughed at the comment, he pushed her to the floor, held the knife to her throat with one hand whilst gripping her neck with the other, and said: “This just gives me more reason to want to rape you” before headbutting her.

Later, Webber “ordered” the woman into bed, put both hands around her neck and asked: “Do you want to die? Do you actually want to die?” He then made her sleep in the bed next to him while he kept a Stanley-type knife under his pillow.

When Webber fell asleep, the woman managed to get to the bathroom and phone a friend who contacted police. Officers recovered a number of knives from the property.

In an impact statement, the victim said she now constantly feels “on edge”, struggles to sleep at night, and is scared at the thought of the defendant getting out of prison.

Webber has 17 previous convictions for 26 offences, including common assault and assault by beating on former partners.

Stuart John, defending, said the incident must have been “extremely traumatic” for the complainant. He said at the time the defendant “did not appreciate the impact of such behaviour” due to experiences while growing up, which had led to alcohol and drug misuse. He added that “perhaps belatedly” Webber has come to an understanding of how “devastating” the episode had been and wishes to apologise.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Webber he “brutally and sadistically attacked a woman who was unfortunate enough to be involved in a brief relationship with you”.

He said after drinking to excess, Webber had “lost all sense of self-control” and subjected the woman to a prolonged ordeal during which she thought she was going to die. The judge said mercifully the cut to the throat caused by the kitchen knife had been superficial.

Judge Thomas said that from the evidence of the night in question, Webber should be considered a dangerous offender, but due to the sentence he was able to impose on the guidelines, he was not able to pass an extended sentence.

With 20% discounts for his guilty pleas, Webber was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison comprising two years and eight months for the ABH, two years for the strangulation, and 18 months for the threatening with a bladed article offence, all to run concurrently.

The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

Webber was also made the subject of an indefinite restraining order banning him from contacting his victim.