Blackpool woman stabbed man over dog care row

Samantha Simcox, 30, of Central Drive, Blackpool, was jailed for 14 months after attacking the victim with a kitchen knife outside the home he shared with his partner in Taunton Street, Blackpool, on August 22 last year.

She had been visiting her friend, the victim’s partner.

Judge Simon Newell, sentencing at Preston’s Sessions House court, said: “It was fortuitous it was not a particular serious injury but you have to understand using a knife in the way you did had the potential to be fatal.

“You used that knife in difficult circumstances for you and your friend.”

Susan Carter, prosecuting, said the victim had been with friends throughout the day and added: “There had been some toing and froing between him and his partner about who was going to look after the family pet and he returned to their home with the dog asking her to look after it.

“Things were rather strained and unpleasant.

“It appears the victim decided to go back to the family home later, and could see his partner was in the living room with them although the door was locked to him.

“He then saw Samantha Simcox go to the kitchen and arm herself with a knife and step out of the door.

“He made a remark she should put it down and wouldn’t know how to use it.

“She stepped forward and stabbed him in the chest.

“It was witnessed by neighbours.

“The complainant fell to the floor, he was bleeding from the wound and was taken to a friend’s house and then to hospital.”

The victim was treated in hospital for the wound but discharged himself, the court heard.

In a statement, the court heard his partner said he had been threatening to kill them and torch their house.

Simcox admitted wounding and possessing a blade.

Defending, Kimberley Obrusik said there had been “a degree of provocation”.

She told the court: “The background is she has been friends with his partner for a significant period of time.

“She had previously seen him being violent towards her.

“She describes it as being the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“She had seen what he had been doing to her for so long. She even said: ‘I’m not having him do that to you any more’.”

She added that the women’s friendship had been destroyed by what had happened.