A HEALTH worker was repeatedly stabbed in the neck by a violent patient who tried to strangle her and hurled her down stairs.

“I thought I was going to die,” Christine Mulroney told Bolton Crown Court in a statement.

Kevin Macdonald, who had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and does not experience guilt or remorse, attacked mental health worker Ms Mulroney as she accompanied him to a outdoor exercise session at The Spinney psychiatric unit in Atherton.

Alison Mather, prosecuting, told Judge Tom Gilbart how Ms Mulroney had been tasked with accompanying patients to the grounds on the afternoon of August 9 last year.

 

 

Macdonald, aged 38, asked to go outside and Ms Mulroney was alone with him as they headed down stairs.

"She describes that the defendant, out of nowhere, began to smack her head into the wall. To achieve this he grabbed her hair, using it as a handle to throw her backwards and forwards into the walls of the corridor," said Miss Mather.

Macdonald, who was larger and stronger than his victim, then grabbed the terrified women in a choke hold.

The court heard that Ms Mulroney screamed and tried repeatedly to active her personal alarm but no one came to her aid.

Using a pair of toe nail pliers he had taken with him, Macdonald began stabbing her in the neck before she managed to wriggle free.

But Macdonald then shoved her, sending her tumbling down the stairs. Although battered and bruised, and suffering a fractured wrist, Ms Mulroney managed to get through a door, locking it behind her and trapping Macdonald in the stair well.

When another member of staff found him he held out his arms, as if waiting for handcuffs, and claimed, "She touched me so I pushed her down the stairs".

In a victim statement Ms Mulroney said the incident has left her having panic attacks and flashbacks and she has been unable to return to work.

"It was the stabbing motion to my neck that terrified me so much as I was sure I would die as a result and think this must have made my body react and fight back," she said.

"During the attack by Kevin I honestly thought that I was going to die and kept thinking of my children.

"I just can't seem to get his face out of my head or stop thinking that I could have been killed by him.

"I had no reason to believe Kevin would attack me in this way. I don't know why he did it but these actions will forever stay with me and I believe my trust in people will never be the same."

The court heard that Macdonald, of no fixed address, has previous convictions including injuring a baby and another for sexually assaulting 17-year-old girl who he attacked in an alley. As a teenager he was involved in racist football violence and carrying flick knives.

He pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Ms Mulroney but Ellen Shaw, defending, said he has low cognitive ability and struggles to understand the impact his actions have on others.

Sentencing Macdonald to three years in jail, Judge Gilbart told him he is "clearly dangerous" and he poses a significant risk to the public.

A psychiatric report about Macdonald concluded that he has a personality disorder which is characterised by "callous unconcern for the feelings of others" and a "disregard for social norms" with no capacity to experience guilt.

Due to an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence Macdonald was previously given, he will not be released again from jail until the parole board rules it is suitable to do so.