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09
Jun 2023
Woman jailed for 22 years for attempting to murder ex-lover's partner in Bilton
A woman turned up at her ex-lover’s home, forced her way in and stabbed his wife repeatedly with a large carving knife as she lay helpless in the hallway.
Clare Bailey, 44, a secondary-school maths teacher and mother-of-two, was wearing a red wig, blue covid mask and sunglasses when she rang the doorbell at her former lover Christopher Russell’s home on Byland Road in Harrogate intent on murder on June 23 last year.
When Mr Russell’s wife Emma, a senior hospital technician, answered the door, Bailey — holding a bunch of flowers in front of her face to disguise herself — told her the bouquet was “for her”, then barged into the hallway brandishing a large carving knife and began “stabbing, hacking and slashing” her all over her body, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Rupert Dodsworth said Ms Russell was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, chest, stomach and arms.
Mr Dodsworth said:
Within seconds of the attack, Mrs Russell’s teenage daughter came downstairs and witnessed the horror unfolding in the doorway.
She tried to get Bailey off her mother, only for the deranged attacker to turn to her still brandishing the carving knife, forcing her to flee upstairs, calling for help.
Video footage of the attack captured Bailey continuing to stab and slash Ms Russell while bending over the stricken victim.
Police at the scene of the attempted murder on Byland Road in Bilton on June 23, 2022.
Neighbours and passers-by saw Bailey walking calmly down the street. One neighbour described her as looking “super casual and smartly dressed”.
It was only when he noticed the front door to Ms Russell’s house was slightly ajar that he realised the full horror of what had occurred, but when he ran back up the street to look for Bailey, she had disappeared.
Another witness said he saw Bailey walking off serenely with what appeared to be a 30cm-long carving knife.
As she lay bleeding on the floor surrounded by paramedics, Mrs Russell, whose face was ashen, said to one of her neighbours: “Please don’t let me die.”
She had suffered multiple stab and slash wounds all over her body, including to her neck, chest and arms, and a puncture wound to her stomach. She also suffered a liver laceration, a colon injury, bleeding to the bowel and multiple tendon injuries.
She was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by ambulance and rushed into intensive care. She underwent emergency surgery to her stomach and had a stoma inserted for bowel leakage.
She remained in intensive care for four days and was kept in hospital for a month for further exploratory surgery. An MRI scan revealed she had suffered a seizure and a brain syndrome which required anti-epilepsy medication.
She discharged herself on July 27 against doctors’ advice because of her “life-changing” injuries.
An LGI doctor said the stab wounds to Ms Russell’s neck and stomach were “within millimetres of being a threat to life”.
Arrested in Birmingham
Bailey was arrested the following morning at her home in Dudley, near Birmingham.
She claimed she was not at the scene and when presented with video footage of her being on the Russells’ doorstep at the time in question, she claimed to have amnesia and claimed it wasn’t her.
Police searched her home and found her blood-stained clothes in the washing machine, a bloodied tissue, the covid mask, and the red wig, the bunch of flowers and gloves in a bin bag.
Footage from a Sainsbury’s supermarket near the Russells’ home showed she had bought the accoutrements, including Dettol hand wipes and a box of gloves, at the store just before launching her savage attack at about 4.50pm. She went into the supermarket’s toilets to change her leggings and footwear before the attack.
Examination of her mobile phone showed that she had sent seven text messages to Mr Russell on the morning of the attack.
Mr Dodsworth said:
At about 10.20am that day, she sent a message to her school saying she couldn’t make it into work that day because of a medical mishap and was “having problems” with her poorly son.
But police ANPR cameras showed that she was driving up the motorway northwards, bound for the Russells’ home in Harrogate. When the school called her in the afternoon, she said she was in her kitchen “getting a doctor’s appointment and would be back in the following day”.
An hour later, she was at Sainsbury’s in Harrogate getting prepared to carry out the act.
When distraught Mr Russell sent her a text message following the attack asking her where she had been at time of the stabbing, Bailey told him: “Is everything okay? Why would you think I’d be up there?”
When she told him his wife had been stabbed, Bailey “feigned a lack of knowledge and offered sympathy”.
Charged with attempted murder
Bailey, of The Riddings, Pedmore, was charged with attempted murder but initially denied the offence. A trial was scheduled but she ultimately changed her plea to guilty. She appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.
Mr Dodsworth said that Bailey and Mr Russell had known each other since childhood in the area where they grew up and he was the best friend of her brother.
A sexual relationship began in 2019 when they were reunited after 20 years at her brother’s wedding and continued over the course of a few years during which Bailey and Mr Russell met up on a “handful” of occasions, mainly at hotels.
Mr Dodsworth said:
Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.
At Christmas 2019, Mr Russell answered a knock on the door at about midnight to find a bunch of flowers and cardboard love notes on the doorstep. No-one was at the door, but a woman was seen running up the street.
The handwritten notes were intended to suggest that Ms Russell was having an affair and the flowers had been left by a lover to try to cause a rift in the marriage.
One of the notes read: ‘I’ll keep on waiting until I can spend (time) with you.’
Ms Russell, who worked as a sterile-services hospital technician, also received a call at her workplace from someone telling her: “I know what he’s up to.”
Despite Bailey’s wicked machinations, the marriage remained intact and in March last year, Mr Russell told her the affair was over.
Mr Dodsworth said:
Mr Russell blocked Bailey on Facebook but in May 2022 he went out for a walk for a lunchtime break from work and felt a “tap on the shoulder”.
Mr Dodsworth said:
Needs wheelchair
In a statement read out in court, Ms Russell said she had since lost her job at the hospital due to the severity of her injuries which had severely restricted her mobility to the extent that she now relied on a wheelchair to go out, had to sleep downstairs and was unable to carry out even the most basic household chores.
She had to use crutches in her home, couldn’t cook, relied on the care of her husband and daughter, couldn’t sleep and suffered flashbacks, panic attacks and nightmares about the gruesome attack. She had no feeling in her right leg or hands, had suffered nerve damage and had been told by doctors that the feeling in her limbs may never return.
She was still in severe pain, still having monthly hospital appointments and physiotherapy and receiving counselling to help her deal with the huge trauma and “mental scars”.
Worse still, her husband had had to give up work to look after her and they were both now on benefits. She was now on “constant edge” whenever someone rang the doorbell or walked past the house, she had lost all her independence and she feared she would never be able to work again.
Defence barrister Curtis Myrie said Bailey had a clear understanding of the misery and trauma she had caused the Russell family and was “genuinely remorseful”.
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He said that her problems started in 2019 following the breakdown of her “very difficult” marriage which left her looking after her children on her own and led to a drink problem and mental-health issues.
He added:
He said that Bailey suffered from an emotional and personality disorder, although a doctor’s report noted that there were no underlying serious mental-health problems that could explain such behaviour.
Judge Robin Mairs said it was clear that Bailey had seen Ms Russell as a “stumbling block” to her relationship with Mr Russell and “to your future happiness”.
He said that Bailey had tried to “poison one side against the other” by trying to insinuate that they were both having affairs.
He told Bailey:
He said the effect on Ms Russell and her family had been “extreme” and life-altering.
Bailey was jailed for 22 years and four months and given a lifetime restraining order banning her from contacting Mrs Russell and her family.
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