A community nurse “charged” into her ex-partner’s home and wounded him with a knife after finding another woman inside the house wearing her night clothes, a court heard.
Sophie Mills, 28, was in a blind rage as she walked into the victim’s home and began ranting, York Crown Court was told.
Mills, of Chaloners Road, York, picked up a butter tub and threw it at the named victim and then launched a kitchen stool in his direction, which missed, after seeing another woman in the house in her nightwear, said prosecutor Rachael Landing.
“She then picked up the stool again and smashed it on the floor,” added Mrs Landing.
Mills then grabbed a butter knife from the kitchen sideboard.
“She held that knife… with the blade out and began swinging the knife across at the victim, causing him to put up his hand in (defensive mode),” said the prosecutor.
By doing so, the victim suffered cuts to his fingers, causing blood to “drip onto the floor”.
As the victim went to the sink to clean his injuries, Mills told him he had “fxxxxx it” and began crying. She then left the property.
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By the time police arrived, the woman in the house had already left out of fear, having earlier dashed upstairs to avoid a confrontation with Mills.
Officers found “blood spots all over the kitchen floor and kitchen side and an open tub of butter on the floor in the middle of the room”, said Mrs Landing.
The victim had wrapped a towel around his hand which was “soaked” in blood. He was taken to York Hospital where he had four stitches applied to a 2cm wound to his middle finger and a superficial cut to his index finger.
‘Smash her face in’
Police turned up at Mills’ home and arrested her. They searched the property and found the victim’s house and car keys.
Later on, while being quizzed in custody, she told police the victim had cut his finger on the cracked butter tub which she had thrown on the floor.
“She said they were still in an intimate relationship and (that) another woman was at (the victim’s) home in his pyjamas,” added Mrs Landing.
Mills was charged with wounding and ultimately admitted the offence. She appeared for sentence yesterday (Friday, 17 June).
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Mrs Landing said the incident occurred at about 10.40am on January 15 last year.
“The victim went outside to smoke and saw (Mills) charging towards the back gate,” she added.
“He immediately felt concerned for the safety of his (female) friend. He walked to the back door, but (Mills) walked into the kitchen. Upon seeing the female friend, (Mills) pointed at her as (the woman) quickly went upstairs.”
The victim asked Mills to leave but she refused, and when his friend came back downstairs, Mills told her she was going to “smash her face in”.
When the victim called police, Mills could be heard “shouting in the background”.
Tempestuous relationship
Mrs Landing said that Mills and the victim, who had a child together, had been in a tempestuous two-year relationship and split up in about 2020.
Mills, a mother-of-two, had never been in trouble before and there had been previous “incidents” between her and the victim.
Mills’s barrister Andrew Petterson was spared the need for mitigation after judge Simon Hickey said he wouldn’t be sending Mills to prison because she was otherwise “a woman of good character” with a responsible job and caring responsibilities for her children.
The judge noted that Mills had worked as a community carer for ten years.
He said the wounding conviction on Mills’s record had already put her “career in (the industry) you love” in jeopardy and may affect her hopes of going to university.
He said that Mills had lost her temper “either by a misapprehension by you or because you took umbrage at seeing another woman dressed in your night clothes”.
Mills was given a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation-activity days and 80 hours’ unpaid work.