South Tyneside man admits attempted murder after slashing his girlfriend's throat and leaving her to bleed to death

Karl Molyneaux tried to kill his girlfriend in a knife attack in her kitchen then left her bleeding heavily on the floor.

The woman was taken to hospital for emergency surgery after being found by her children, with multiple stab wounds to her neck and arm, after the violence in her home last month.

The victim said in a statement: “I am extremely upset and in disbelief that Karl has done this to me – I cannot believe he is capable of this.

“I am worried about my children as they were in my house at the time and I had to ask them for help. I tried to help myself but I was in so much pain.

“This has turned my world upside down. I need to know why this has happened.”

Molyneaux, 52, had denied attempted murder during a court hearing earlier this month and had been due to face trial.

But his case was back at Newcastle Crown Court this morning where he pleaded guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The hearing was adjourned so both prosecution and defence teams can obtain psychiatric reports on Molyneaux, along with a pre-sentence report, so a judge can asses what future risk he poses.

Molyneaux, of Eglesfield Road, South Shields, who appeared via video link to prison, will be sentenced on June 26 and has been remanded in custody in the meantime.

Judge Paul Sloan warned him: "The fact I am adjourning sentence and the fact I have directed preparation of pre-sentence reports is not an indication of the sentence that will be imposed.

"You will understand, you face a significant immediate custodial sentence, given the gravity of this offence.

"You will be linked in to this court, as you have been today, on June 26 for the sentence hearing.

"You must attend that hearing, if you were to refuse to leave your cell, the hearing could proceed in your absence."

The victim, who had a decade long friendship with Molyneaux before their relationship formed, has said her life was turned “upside down” by the horrific attack in her kitchen at her home in South Shields on March 11 as her two teenage children were upstairs.

After cutting her throat and inflicting the horrific wounds, Molyneaux fled the address and left her bleeding heavily on the floor – before calling police from a petrol station and confessing to what he had done.

By that point, the victim, who had been found downstairs with multiple stab wounds by her children, had been taken to hospital by ambulance staff for life-saving surgery.

Detective Sergeant Gaye Martin, of Northumbria Police, said: “This was an appalling and cowardly attack as Molyneaux – somebody with no previous offending history – attempted to kill somebody who he should have been caring for.

“His actions were cold and sinister, leaving his girlfriend to fight for her life with catastrophic injuries as he brazenly left the address with her two teenage children upstairs.”

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