A man is on trial accused of trying to murder his ex-partner as she walked her dog. James McKenna is accused of attempting to stab Joanne Sidaway to death in an ambush in Carmarthen Park on January 29 this year.
The defendant denies the allegation but has admitted wounding with intent and possessing a bladed article in a public place, and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.
Opening the case for the prosecution, barrister James Wilson told the jury that on the morning of January 29 the defendant packed a kitchen knife in his rucksack and walked from his home in Carmarthen to Carmarthen Park, an area where his former partner Miss Sidaway regularly walked her dog.
He said the pair were caught on CCTV walking separately in the park that morning but the defendant did not approach Miss Sidaway at that point – possibly, he said, because there were other the people in the park at the time. For the latest court stories sign up to our crime newsletter
The barrister said McKenna took a taxi into Carmarthen town centre where he was seen on CCTV at various locations before returning to the park in the afternoon. He said Miss Sidaway also returned to the park to walk her dog again.
The barrister told the court that at just after 4pm a neighbour of Miss Sidaway who was in the park heard “very high-pitched screams” from bushes near the Picton Terrace entrance. The woman then saw a man running away from the bushes, and saw her friend bleeding from wounds to her hands.
The court heard Miss Sidaway suffered four penetrating wounds to the left side of her chest, penetrating wounds to her upper arm, and “defensive” type wounds to her hands. You can read the full prosecution opening here
The court heard police subsequently recovered a blood-stained knife and a rucksack from allotments near the park, and heard that the defendant was arrested on February 2 after going to hospital in Aberystwyth with frostbite to his feet.
McKenna gave officers a prepared statement in which he accepted having a knife and accepted being responsible for the injuries to Miss Sidaway but denied trying to kill her.
The prosecution barrister told the jury: “He [the defendant] accepts he had the knife. He accepts he unlawfully attacked Miss Sidaway. He accepts he intended to cause really serious harm.
“The prosecution does not accept his intent was limited to causing really serious harm. It is the prosecution case that he intended to kill her. Therefore, the issue in the trial will be his intent at the time of the attack.”
James John McKenna, of Bro Hedydd, Carmarthen, denies attempted murder.
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