'I don’t want mummy to go to jail': Woman accused of stabbing ex-husband at playground
A Perth jury has heard how panicked mothers searched for their children after a woman allegedly stabbed her ex-husband at a suburban park.
Mark Fernandez was left with his intestines hanging out and needed 243 stitches to his upper body and hands following the altercation with his former partner, Michelle Allison Fernandez.
Ms Fernandez is accused of repeatedly stabbing Mr Fernandez with a 20cm kitchen knife in front of their young daughter near the playground at Shelley Foreshore.
Witness Claire Watkinson told the jury she heard a huge scream.
“It was a very guttural, scary scream,” she said. “Literally every mother at the park was calling for their kids.”
Ms Watkinson said she heard a man yelling: “she’s stabbing me, she’s stabbing me. Help.”
The witness testified a young girl nearby was distressed and said: “I don’t want my mummy to go to jail”.
Another witness phoned triple-0, telling the operator: “We’re not sure who stabbed who, but there’s a lot of blood.”
In a later call, the same witness told police: “The mother involved said he came at her with a knife and there was a tussle and he’s in a bad way.
“He’s been stabbed in the stomach. I think it is with the knife that she tried to get off him.”
A bystander claimed Mr Fernandez had been playing enthusiastically with his daughter in the playground.
She said when he had started screaming for help, her first thought was that he was joking.
Ms Fernandez claimed it was her former husband who brought the weapon to the park and she acted in self-defence because she feared for her safety.
The trial continues.
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