Man ‘slashed mother’s face seven times’ as she pushed her baby in a pram

  • london
  • June 29, 2020
  • Comments Off on Man ‘slashed mother’s face seven times’ as she pushed her baby in a pram
Man ‘slashed mother’s face seven times’ as she pushed her baby in a pram thumbnail

A knifeman repeatedly stabbed a woman who was pushing her baby in a pram just six days after he was let out of jail, a court heard today.

Josephine Conlon, 36, was on the phone to her mum while pushing her 21-month old daughter along when she was pushed to the ground and slashed seven times, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

She received wounds across the neck and face and her salivary gland was pierced during the attack near her home in Streatham Hill, London on December 30 last year.

In a statement read by prosecutors, Josephine said she had been ‘screaming the whole time’ begged to know ‘what he wanted’.

It read: ‘He was all over me. He was kneeling over me so he had the dominant position. I was on the floor being stabbed.’

She told police the buggy containing her baby rolled into a parked car during the attack.

Her statement continued: ‘I remember thinking he had pushed me into the driveway because he was going to rape me.

‘I realised I was being stabbed. I was screaming a lot because I was not in the road so I wanted somebody to hear me.’

The attacker ran away when Josephine managed to get to her feet, she added.

Mark Brazant, 44, of Ealing, west London, has admitted stabbing her but denies attempted murder or intent to causee her serious harm.

Prosecutors said their case would be that having paranoid schizophrenia would not give him a defence for his ‘horrific crime’. 

Jurors heard he was suffering from schizophrenia and handed himself in to police three days after the attack.

He had been released from Thameside prison on Christmas Eve after completing a sentence for three counts of battery and one count of common assault.

He was staying in a support house for people with mental health issues after his release, but staff reported him missing.

Josephine was discharged from hospital the day after the attack but continues to receive treatment for scarring on her face and neck.

The trial continues.

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