Woman found to have intentionally stabbed two boys

A woman has been found to have deliberately stabbed two 10-year-old boys.

Ann Marie McEvoy, 41, of Church Walk, Colchester, was arrested after police found two boys with stab wounds at a flat in Fold Hill, Friskney, near Skegness, on 30 November 2022.

Officers were initially sent on 29 November to conduct a welfare check, but McEvoy produced a large kitchen knife when an officer went to the front door at about 15:30 GMT.

The jury at Lincoln Crown Court, sitting at Lincoln Magistrates' Court, unanimously found that McEvoy - who was deemed unfit to stand trial - had committed two counts of wounding the boys with intent.

Prosecuting, Michael Cranmer-Brown told the court that McEvoy was found in a bedroom holding a large kitchen knife, with the two boys lying on the bed and bleeding from their injuries.

McEvoy was tasered and fell to the ground. The boys were taken into the front room and given first aid before being taken to hospital.

The boys, who were 10 at the time and cannot be named because of their ages, sustained several stab wounds but neither was believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

One of the boys had puncture wounds across the top of his chest and the left side of neck, and a large wound in the middle of his back.

The other boy had a wound on his right hand, an injury at the base of his neck and a large gaping wound on the back of his left arm.

PC Andrew Donnelly, based at Boston and one of the firearms officers who went into the flat, said during evidence that he saw the boys on the bed after McEvoy had been tasered.

"One of the children was underneath the duvet and another was further away but looking at me. Both boys were crying," he said.

The court heard he then arrested McEvoy, and video footage showed she repeatedly said to him: "I don't want them near you. I'd rather them die than be near you."

The kitchen knife was retrieved by a crime scene investigator on top of a box under the bed, with an apparent blood stain at the end of the blade.

Interviews with the two boys were presented as evidence.

Boy A said that the two of them went to bed on 29 November and had "so much trouble sleeping", waking up in the early hours of 30 November.

He said he "woke up when [McEvoy] was about to stab" and said she was on the bed with a knife above her head.

"She went for [Boy B] first, got his back, nearly got his heart but I stopped it," he said.

Boy A said that he put his hand over Boy B's heart so that the knife went through his hand instead.

Boy B said that McEvoy "thought it was a sacrifice" when police officers were outside the flat.

He said he also woke up in the early hours of the morning, and heard Boy A say "I don't want to die".

He added: "I didn't feel any pain because I was completely in shock. I was absolutely terrified."

On the second day of the trial, the jury concluded that McEvoy had deliberately stabbed each child, the stabbings were unlawful, and they had caused wounds.

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