Stabbing aftermath like 'scene from horror movie'

A witness has described seeing the defendant in a double attempted murder trial and an injured child as "like a scene from a horror movie".

Malcolm Greenley was giving evidence at Carlisle Crown Court at the trial of Jacqueline Mounsey, who is accused of trying to kill her husband and a child.

Police were called to Whernside in the Morton area of Carlisle on 10 June and found three people with knife wounds, who all needed hospital treatment.

Ms Mounsey, 53, denies two counts of attempted murder, as well as two counts of a lesser charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

Mr Greenley, a neighbour, told a jury he had briefly seen Mark Bennett in his back garden that morning with blood on his chest.

He said he had left the property by the back gate and was followed by Ms Mounsey.

Answering questions from Iain Simkin KC for the prosecution, Mr Greenley said he later saw Ms Mounsey and the child.

He said Ms Mounsey had her right hand to the right side of her neck and that both she and the child had blood on them.

"I have never seen so much blood in my life," he said, adding: "It was like a scene from a horror movie."

In a statement read to the court, another neighbour, Annie Garner, said Mr Bennett had knocked on her door early that morning and was bleeding.

She said he had told her, referring to Ms Mounsey, that "she's lost it, she's stabbed me".

The prosecution case is that Ms Mounsey first stabbed her husband, before attacking the child and then turning the knife on herself.

Opening the trial earlier this week, Mr Simkin said Ms Mounsey had used "persistent, deadly violence which we say demonstrates her clear intention to kill".

The trial continues.