Stabbed Ammanford teacher thought she was going to die – court

A teacher who was stabbed by a teenage pupil said she thought she was going to die, a jury has heard.

Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, along with a student, were injured in the attack in April at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford.

The 14-year-old previously admitted the triple stabbing, but denies attempted murder.

On the second day of the trial, the jury were shown CCTV footage of the incident and a police interview with Ms Elias from the same evening.

Ms Elias, the school’s assistant head, explained how the girl had “looked at her with sinister eyes, like she was going to do something to me” before stabbing her.

She said she came to know the girl at the beginning of the school year when she found a knife in her bag.

She also taught the pupil, and said that there had been some problems with behaviour, saying she could be “immature” and “either really happy or moody”.

On the day of the incident, she explained that she had asked the girl to leave the lower hall of the school, as she had done in the past, as she didn’t have permission to be there during break time.

The teacher said she noticed her playing with something in her pocket.

“She was looking at me, saying ‘I want to stay in here’,” Fiona Elias explained in her interview with the police.

“She came up to me, facing me, quite close to me. She was just looking at me with these eyes, so sinister, and playing with whatever she had in her pocket.

“Very distant, very menacing, looking at me like she was going to do something, looking right through me. Quite ironically, ‘if looks could kill’.”

The conversation finished, Ms Elias said, and she then left the building to go and join her colleague Ms Hopkin outside, with the girl approaching them some minutes later.

Ms Elias said she explained to the girl again why she had no permission to go to the lower hall, as well as asking her about her trousers, which didn’t comply with school uniform.

Ms Elias added that she had a “sinister look” and continued to “play whatever she had in her pocket.”

“She was talking in a quiet tone, again menacing.”

The teacher said she told the girl she wasn’t happy about the way she was looking at her and asked her what she had in her pocket.

Ms Elias said the girl replied to her with: “Do you want to see what’s in my pocket? Do you?”

The teacher then said she pulled out the knife and said she was going to kill her.

“I thought it was going to die. I thought that was it,” said Ms Elias.

Ms Elias said the teenager had “completely lost it” and the teenager carried on telling her that she would kill her.

“She was trying to get away, Liz and I were trying to call for help. I just wanted to get the knife of her.”

Ms Elias explained how Ms Hopkin shouted at her saying, “Fiona, go, just go”, and she saw cuts and blood on her arms when she went inside and took off her coat.

CCTV shown to the jury showed Ms Elias leaving, and the girl then stabbing Ms Hopkin multiple times, before stabbing a pupil.

“I was really shaken up,” Ms Elias said, “I was asking [the headteacher’s personal assistant] to phone the police.”

She had first aid from a staff member, and was treated by paramedics in school, before being transferred to Morriston hospital to treat “superficial” stab wounds on both her arms and her left hand.

Ms Elias was released from hospital on the same day.

The trial continues.