Boyfriend knifed me!
Luke suddenly flipped and knifed girlfriend Laura
Monday 16th June 2008
At first, I thought I was dreaming. My boyfriend of a year, Luke Wale, was sitting on the end of the bed, chatting on his mobile. But no, this wasn't a dream.
'It's 2am,' I fumed, sitting up. 'Who the hell are you talking to?'
He just looked at me and smiled. Is he trying to make me jealous?
To be honest, I hadn't expected Luke back at the house we shared with my mum, Josephine, and her partner, John Meadows, both 58. It was August 2007, and that night, we'd gone to the Hanwell Arms in Banbury, and ended up having a massive row. Why? Because three weeks earlier, I'd miscarried just six weeks into my pregnancy. Since then, Luke, 33, had been cold and distant, and when I'd confronted him about it in the pub, we'd rowed.
Luke had driven me home in silence, then gone out. Now, he'd had the nerve to let himself back into the house and sit on the end of our bed, talking to what sounded like another girl.
'I want you to get out!' I snapped, scrambling out of bed.
Luke hung up and stomped off down the stairs with me hot on his heels. I watched in disbelief as he started making another call.
'You're going to wake the whole house,' I hissed. 'Just go.'
He shot me a look of pure hatred, and I barely recognised the tanned, dark-haired bloke I'd fallen for in September 2006, at Vodafone, Banbury, where we'd both worked as reps.
As he flung open the front door, I stepped forward to say something, but before I got a word out, he spun around and punched me full in the face. He's just hit me!
'Luke!' I gasped, staggering backwards, my cheek throbbing.
Then he really went for it, punching me again and again. Stunned, there was no way I could fight back. Then he clamped his hands round my neck and squeezed with all his might.
I fought for breath and the room started spinning.
'I love you,' I tried to mouth, desperate to make him stop.
But he kept strangling me until everything went black...
When I opened my eyes,
I could hear screaming. Mum! As I fought for breath, it took me a few seconds to realise she was cradling me in her lap, wrapped in just a white towel.
'What happened?' she gasped, as Luke just stood there in the hall. 'Did you do this?'
Without a word, Luke strode over and smacked her hard in the face. Still clutching the towel around her, Mum dragged me up and we stumbled to the downstairs loo.
'Get in!' Mum yelled, slamming the door behind us.
'I'm going to be sick,' I gasped, retching over the toilet bowl.
Mum locked us in, but the lock broke as Luke hurled himself against the door. It burst open, and his arms appeared around the door-frame. He was holding a 5in meat cleaver in one hand, and a kitchen knife in the other. He waved them around, the blades getting closer.
Throwing myself in front of Mum, I pushed against the door. It jolted hard. Luke had wedged his foot in.My heart was hammering so fast, I could hardly breathe as the knife swooshed closer to my face. Suddenly, it sliced through a chunk of my hair.
I tried to turn away, just as the knife came down again. This time, the blade plunged into my back. It sounds strange, but there was no pain, just a weird sensation, like something hitting me.
'Please stop,' Mum begged.
Luke hesitated and looked towards the hall, as John came thundering down the stairs.
Seizing my chance, I charged past Luke and out of the front door. Frantically, I raced from one house to the next, pounding on front doors and screaming for help. I could taste blood in my mouth, hot and metallic, and when I looked down at my beige bra and white knickers, they were soaked with blood. It was pumping out of my lip like a fountain.
'Please help!' I screamed, as I hammered on another door.But no one came.
As blood streamed down my neck, I collapsed in a neighbour's garden. The next thing I knew, a group of teenagers were looking down at me, and a girl was putting a jacket over my shoulders.
'It's going to be all right,' she said.
What happened next is a blur. Police arriving in a riot van… Being carried into an ambulance… Screeching up to The Horton Hospital in Banbury…
Doctors used about 40 stitches to sew up the gaping knife wounds on my head, arm, back and lip. Meanwhile, Mum was treated for stab wounds, while John was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, for surgery on a slash wound to his face. Luke had attacked him after I'd made a run for it. I was discharged three days later, but I couldn't go home as the memories were too painful, so I went to stay with my brother, David, 30, who lived nearby.
The police told me Luke had been arrested, but that didn't stop him phoning me three days later.
'Babe, I'm so sorry,' he sobbed. 'I love you. Are you OK?'
How dare he?
'No!' I shouted, and slammed down the phone.
I was furious. The man I'd shared my life with for a year, the man I'd welcomed into my home and fallen for, had tried to kill me and my family.
Thankfully, by the time Luke's case came to court, in March this year, John was recovering well and my scars were fading. Luke pleaded guilty to attempted murder, robbery and two counts of grievous bodily harm at Oxford Crown Court. After our row at the pub, he'd gone drinking and taken drugs. When I'd escaped, he'd attacked John with the meat cleaver, then run out and grabbed a mobile phone from a passer-by, saying he'd committed one murder and was prepared to commit another. Sick.
Luke's defence said he had a 'personality disorder' and regretted his actions. I wasn't
in court to see him sentenced to an indefinite jail term, but I can't say I was sorry.
As for me, two months on, I'm still trying to work out why Luke flipped. Was it his reaction to me losing the baby? I'll never know. But one thing I do know is that
I'm a survivor, and I'll get through this stronger and wiser.