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Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:06 pm

A woman in her 30s suffered a stab wound to the stomach

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A woman was left critically ill in hospital after being stabbed outside a Coventry church.

Emergency services were called to St Margaret's Church in Walsgrave Road, Stoke, just after 3am on Sunday, April 8.

West Midlands Ambulance Service were first on the scene and alerted police to a woman who had been found with a stab wound to her stomach.

She was taken to hospital with serious injuries where she remained in a critical condition on Sunday afternoon.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "Officers are investigating a stabbing which occurred at around 3.15am on Sunday, April 8, in Coventry.

"Ambulance colleagues alerted police to a woman, thought to be in her 30s, found with a stab wound to her abdomen at St Margaret’s Church on Walsgrave Road.

"She was taken to hospital with serious injuries, where she remains in a critical condition.

"Part of the church remains closed this morning while forensic examinations continue."

Forensics were outside the church until just after midday gathering evidence from the scene.

The officer focused on one particular area outside the front of the church.

They gathered several items of evidence in brown bags which they took away.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “The doors behind had people going in, it was open at about midnight.

“There were people going into the church.

“I’ve never seen that and wondered what was so special to go church at that time.

“I then got woken up about 3am by the sirens and saw the lights of about six police cars.”

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Re: Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:56 pm

Man arrested over Coventry church stabbing

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A man has been arrested after a woman was found stabbed outside a church.

The victim was found outside St Margaret's Church in Coventry with a knife wound to her abdomen at about 03:15 BST on Sunday.

The woman, who is in her early 30s, remains in a "critical condition" in hospital, West Midlands Police said.

A 26-year-old from Coventry is being held on suspicion of attempted murder and is in police custody for questioning.

:bbc_news:

Re: Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Tue Apr 10, 2018 3:37 pm

Man arrested over Coventry church stabbing detained under Mental Health Act

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A man who was arrested after a woman was stabbed outside a church has been detained under the Mental Health Act.

The 26-year-old was arrested on Sunday night on suspicion of attempted murder.

It comes after a woman, in her 30s, was taken to hospital with stab wounds in the early hours of Sunday.

Emergency services were called to St Margaret's Church on Ball Hill shortly after 3am.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "The woman remains in a critical condition. The man who was arrested has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act."

The police cordon was removed yesterday - around 36 hours after the incident happened.

A bike was also seized.

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Re: Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:45 pm

Sword attack on woman outside Coventry church: Man admits attempted murder

A MAN who stabbed a woman with what was described as a sword following a midnight mass to celebrate the Christian Orthodox Easter has admitted he was trying to kill her.

Yosief Weldemaryam pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the attempted murder of Yodit Mogos in the early hours of Sunday April 8.

Ms Mogos, who is in her 30s and is believed to be Eritrean, was stabbed outside St Margaret’s Church in Walsgrave Road, Coventry, at around 3.15am.

She had been among a large number of people who had crowded into the church to celebrate a midnight mass to mark the Christian Orthodox Easter.

Weldemaryam (28) of no fixed address, sat in the dock flanked by staff from the Reaside psychiatric clinic in Rubury, Birmingham, where he has been held in a secure unit.

His barrister Adam Western said he had been found fit to enter a plea to the charge – but asked for sentencing to be adjourned for a second psychiatric report to be prepared on him.

Adjourning the case until September for that to be done, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC commented: “I think there should be a PRS (pre-sentence report) as well.

“Although those doctors will be looking, plainly, towards the future, I want there to be a formal assessment by the probation service as to dangerousness.”

Remanding Weldemaryam in custody at Reaside, he said he also wanted the prosecution to obtain an up-to-date impact statement from the victim before the next hearing.

Judge Lockhart told Weldemaryam through a Tigrinya interpreter: “Further reports are required upon you before I can properly pass sentence on you.

“Those reports are going to be prepared, but we will not be ready to sentence you until the 9th of September.

“You will receive the appropriate level of credit for the plea you have tendered when you come before me on that day. In the meantime, I remand you in custody.”

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Re: Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Thu Oct 10, 2019 5:15 pm

'Delusional' knifeman stabbed mum as she held young son in her arms

A churchgoing mum leaving mass was the victim of a frenzied knife attack as she held her three-year-old son in her arms.

Yodit Mogos suffered life-threatening injuries at the hands of delusional Yosief Weldemaryam who believed Mrs Mogos and her husband were trying to kill him.

But even as Weldemaryam plunged a 33cm knife, described by witnesses as a sword, into his victim, she calmly managed to put her son down and away from danger.

Weldemaryam, 28, of no fixed address, earlier pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the attempted murder of Mrs Mogos over the incident on April 8 last year.

A psychiatrist told the court Weldemaryam was suffering from a ‘schizo-effective disorder, depressive type,’ as well as a thought disorder and delusional and paranoid beliefs.

He said he was unable to recall the incident, but claimed Mrs Mogos had put something negative concerning him on Facebook and that her husband had had made remarks at work about his mother which had caused him to change jobs.

Psychiatrist Dr Sajid Muzaffar said Weldemaryam, who sat in the dock flanked by staff from Reaside psychiatric clinic in Birmingham, where he has been held in a secure unit, has ‘a severe mental health disorder.’

He said Weldemaryam, who followed proceedings with the help of a Tigrinya interpreter, suffers from ‘schizo-effective disorder, depressive type,’ as well as a thought disorder and delusional and paranoid beliefs.

“He reported that he felt under threat and believed he was going to be killed, and that the victim and her husband were leading a plan to kill him, and that there was a computer-led operation that was tracking him,” said Mr Muzaffar.

At a previous hearing the court heard that in an initial report on Weldemaryam, Dr Karim Rajput had expressed the opinion that ‘a hybrid order is the appropriate disposal.’

Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said he wanted time to consider what sentence to pass, and adjourned the case to a date when both barristers and the interpreter are available.

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Re: Woman fights for life after stabbing at church in Coventry

Sun Oct 27, 2019 2:06 pm

Frenzied knife attack on mum with child outside Coventry church results in 15 year prison sentence

AS a knifeman carried out a frenzied knife attack on her as she left a Coventry church, a mother who believed she was about to die turned away and gently put her young son down to save him.

Yosief Weldemaryam’s victim, whose mother had been warned to expect her and the little boy in a coffin, survived the attack only thanks to the skill of the surgeons who operated on her.

And at Warwick Crown Court, Weldemaryam (28) of no fixed address, was given what is known as a ‘hybrid order’ after he had pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Classing him as a dangerous offender, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC sentenced him to 15 years in prison, of which he will have to serve at least ten years before the Parole Board can consider his release.

If he is freed before serving the full sentence, he will then by on licence for the rest of the term and for an additional five years.

But Judge Lockhart also made an order under the Mental Health Act that Weldemaryam, who he heard suffers from paranoid schizophrenia with persecutory delusions, should first be detained for treatment in a secure psychiatric unit.

Once it is considered safe for him to be discharged, if it is still within the period of the custodial term, he will then be moved to a prison to complete his sentence there.

Sentencing Weldemaryam, Judge Lockhart told him: “This was the result of a plan to kill made across the course of weeks, if not months. It was a premeditated attempt to kill.

“She was fatally wounded, but survived only through the skill of paramedics, surgeons and dedicated nursing staff.

“An intention to kill is established, and failure to implement that was due to no act on your part, you intended that death would follow.

“I find that in this case anger was the trigger, overlain with delusional beliefs.

“This offence, where death so nearly occurred, was caused by anger which you could not completely control due to your condition. There is no guarantee that this will not happen again. I cannot begin to say when this risk will end.”

Explaining the sentence, the judge added: “You will be detained in hospital for as long as necessary. If and when it is no longer necessary, and if your sentence has not expired, you will be transferred to prison where you will serve the remainder of the sentence which I have imposed.”

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