THE girlfriend of a Driffield chef wept in court as she admitted plunging a huge knife into his back in a drink-fuelled rage while he lay slumped on a bed.
Petite Tiffany Baillie, 32, thrust the 12cm-long kitchen knife into Gregory Todd, 48, after they had been out drinking having got back together under one roof after a split.
Mr Todd, who had been working at the Bell Hotel, in Driffield, for 10 months, had been living at a flat in Trinity Court, Hessle, with Baillie. For reasons she has not told police, she lashed out while Mr Todd was laid on the bed fully clothed He had no protecting and was wearing a thin T-shirt. Mr Todd has no memory of the attack. The knife was later recovered from sheets in the bedroom. It had entered Mr Todd’s body right up to the hilt and was covered in blood. It was a single stab wound which surgeons said required “considerable force” to penetrate so far.
After stabbing him, a panic-stricken Baillie knocked on a neighbours door and asked him to call the police.
When police spoke to Baillie she said: “What Have I done? Have I killed him? Will he die?”
The knife had punctured his liver and caused damage to his pancreas and spleen. His lung had to be drained. Surgeons at Hull Royal Infirmary told police that without medical intervention he would have died.
Baillie wept openly as she denied the charge of attempted murder of her boyfriend as it was put to her by the court clerk, but pleaded guilty to the charge of wounding with intent at Hull Crown Court on Thursday (March 1).
Mr Todd was not in court to see here give a guilty plea, but her family were. Mr Todd was in a critical condition in the intensive care unit and officers feared he may not make it through the night. Mr Todd spent three months in hospital.
Crown barrister Jharna Jobes said: “The plea is acceptable. We do not seek a trial on the charge of attempted murder.”
Barrister Paul Genney for Baillie said following the stabbing at 9pm on December 4 last year there had been reconciliation between the couple.
“Mr Todd has visited Miss Baillie in Wakefield Prison,” said Mr Genney. “He was taken there by her parents. They seem to have reconciled. They are still in contact with each other. She understands the inevitability of sentence. I make no application to change her status. The court would be assisted by a pre-sentence report.”
Judge Michael Mettyear remanded Baillie back into custody. She will be sentenced at Hull Crown Court on March 26.