Teacher’s terror in frenzied screwdriver attack

STABBING ordeal . . . Gillian Kay

‘I’m going to kill you’
A TERRIFIED headteacher has described the moment she was stabbed in the head and neck by a neighbour who screamed “I’m going to kill you.”

Gillian Kay fought for her life on the driveway of her home in Shaw Road, Thornham, after paranoid schizophrenic Mark Pierson launched the frenzied attack. Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court yesterday Mrs Kay said she screamed for help as Pierson repeatedly stabbed her with a screwdriver, last April.

Mrs Kay (40), headteacher at Propps Hall Primary in Failsworth, said: “I could see it was a screwdriver and I was petrified. As soon as he held it out he started attacking me with it. He just said ‘I’m going to kill you. He had a really contorted face. I was finding it really hard to keep him off me.

“I was constantly screaming, I remember thinking ‘this is it’.”

The crown alleges Mr Pierson only stopped the attack after motorist Clive Marshall intervened to confront Pierson, who walked back into his house. Neighbours rushed out to help Mrs Kay, by then lying on the floor.

Neighbour Heather Pass said: “Gillian had blood all over her face and neck. She was shaking and frightened, I held her.”

Charlotte Crangle, prosecuting, described the attack as “frenzied”. Police arrested Pierson at his home a short time later.

Pierson has been judged unfit to stand trial due to his mental illness but a jury is being asked to decide whether he is the person who committed the attack.
Proceeding.