Mother relives horror of car-park knife attack

Reporter: by KAREN DOHERTY
Date online: 04 February 2009

‘I thought he was going to kill me’


A MOTHER-OF-THREE has described the moment she thought she was going to die when she was stabbed in a supermarket car park.

The brave 29-year-old was knifed twice in the leg when she refused to hand over her bag and car keys to a hooded thug outside Sainsbury’s in Union Street.

She is too afraid to be named, but spoke to the Evening Chronicle because she fears that her attacker and his accomplices could strike again.

The terrifying ordeal, which was caught on CCTV, happened after the woman had finished work on Tuesday, January 27.

She was walking to her car, parked in the supermarket’s car park, at 8.20pm when a stolen Ford Fiesta containing four men sped in front of her.

She said: “I thought it was going to knock me over. It frightened me and I knew something was going to happen — I think they parked the car to block anyone from seeing what was happening.

“A man jumped out of the car and ran towards me and pulled a knife out. After demanding my bag, which I wouldn’t give to him, he stabbed me in the leg.

“I ran away and he started chasing me, but when I started screaming he ran off. I think a woman ran to Sainsbury’s to get help.

“I thought he had missed me at first, I was so frightened and was trying to get away. I then put my hand over my leg and realised I was bleeding, which scared me more.

“I believe if I hadn’t screamed he would have stabbed me again because he chased me again. I did think he was going to kill me.”

The attacker fled in the silver Fiesta which was found abandoned minutes later in Glodwick.

His victim, who has suffered nightmares since the attack, needed stitches to her right leg and is off work.

A week earlier a 50-year-old man was knifed by three Asian men who demanded his keys in the car park at Tesco, Westwood. Police are not ruling out a link.

The offender, his accomplices and the victim in the latest incident were Asian and she is urging the community to come forward with information.

She fears that her attackers will hunt for her and pleaded: “Somebody must know who they are or saw them driving about.

“If anybody has got information just come forward. It could be them that it happens to next.

“They got a good look at me and that’s frightening. I have all these thoughts going through my head. Are they going to come for me again, are they going to come looking for me?”

The CCTV footage is on the Chronicle website at www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk.

People with information should contact Oldham CID on 0161-856 8951 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.