Ammanford school stabbings: Girl gives evidence to jury

A 14-year-old – who cannot be named due to her age – gave evidence at her trial on Monday recounting the incident which saw Ysgol Dyffryn Aman placed in to lockdown on April 24.

She denied attempted murder, but admitted three offences of wounding with intent and also having a knife on a school grounds.

• For the latest crime and court news for west Wales, you can join our Facebook group here.

Appearing in the dock, the defendant told the jury that she had no intention of killing the three victims, but “lost control”, leaving the incident as “kind of a blur” in her memory.

The teenager told the jury that she “wasn’t very fond” of Fiona Elias, but did not know Liz Hopkin and didn’t have any problem with her. When asked whether she wanted to harm the teenage victim, she replied: "No, I was a bit worried that I did."

Caroline Rees KC asked the defendant if she ever wanted to hurt Mrs Elias.

"Hurt, yes," she said. "It was more a joke at the start. I didn't want to hurt anyone.

"We were making jokes about imagining if one of us slapped her. But we didn't take it seriously."

Police and forensic investigators at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman.

After Mrs Elias asked her to leave the lower hall, the defendant went and sat back down with her friends.

She was asked whether she made a comment whilst sharing an energy drink with a friend that it being her "last drink”.

"I was getting really, really angry at that point,” she said. “I was thinking to myself 'If I'm going to hit a teacher, I'm going to get thrown out of school'.”

"You're intending to beat her up?" Judge Paul Thomas KC asked.

"Yes," the defendant replied.

"I wasn't taking it seriously when I previously talked about it, but at that point I was really, really angry."

• READ MORE: Defence sets out case for girl accused of attempted murder of teachers.

When asked by Ms Rees about the confrontation with the two teachers outside, the defendant replied: "I don't remember most of it. I remember the start but the end of it is kind of a blur."

She denied wanting to kill Mrs Elias, and said she couldn't remember what she was saying during the incident.

When asked what was happening in her mind during the attack, she said: "I remember thinking to myself 'What am I doing? Stop. Stop'. But I don't remember seeing anything.

"It's just dark. And I remember being very hot during the incident."

"Were you in control?," Ms Rees asked.

"No."

"Did you deliberately target [Ms Hopkin’s] neck?"

"No."

Recalling the attack on the pupil, the defendant said: "I remember hearing someone speaking and I recognised the voice as [the teenage victim].

"I turned around and screamed '[Pupil's name], you're next'."

"You're next for what?," Ms Rees asked.

"I don't really know," the defendant replied.

"I don't recall seeing, hearing or saying anything after that."

A crime scene investigator enters the school after the attack. (Image: Newsquest)

When asked how she felt after the attack when she was detained in the deputy headteacher’s office, she replied: "Nothing. Empty and relieved".

"What did [being arrested] feel like?," Ms Rees asked.

"I didn't really care at that point."

The defendant was asked about the comment she made to the officer in which she said: 'I stabbed her...oopsies'.

"I didn't mean it in the way people would have presented it. I meant it as 'I f***** up'," she said.

"I asked if they were dead because I saw someone being pushed to a helicopter.” 

She was asked how she felt.

"Terrible," she said. "Guilty."

• READ MORE: Teachers 'thought they were going to die' in school knife attack, jury hears.

In cross-examination, prosecutor William Hughes KC asked the defendant if she wanted to seriously injure Mrs Elias.

"Yes," she replied.

Mr Hughes said that the multi-tool had a folding mechanism meaning that you need to pull the blade out to be able to use it.

"When did you pull the blade out? Do you remember?," he asked.

"No," she replied.

Mr Hughes played the bodycam footage of the defendant telling the officer: 'I've had loads of eyes on me today. Sooner or later I'm 90 per cent sure this is going to be on the news. That's one way of being a celebrity'.

He asked her if she was "pleased" that her actions would receive media attention.

"No. That's me trying to bring up the mood,” she said. “It's one of the things I do when I'm upset."

Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin were stabbed in the attack, as well as a teenage pupil. (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)

During re-examination, Ms Rees asked the defendant if she remembered intending for Ms Hopkin to die when she stabbed her in the neck.

"I don't remember," she said.

The defendant said she brought knives in to school “all the time” since she was “in Year Three or Four”.

“Because I felt worried, scared," she said when asked why.

“I didn't trust the system. The people.

"I'd get physically harmed by people, and verbal abuse."

The trial continues.