Leeds student tried to suffocate ex with pillow and launched attack with scissors
Woman claimed friends had “abandoned” her
A student attacked her ex boyfriend as he slept by putting a pillow over his face, before she went for him with a pair of scissors.
Felicity Wilcox did “not take the break-up well” days before, Leeds Crown Court was told.
She avoided a jail sentence but was told by the judge that if she was returned to court, the punishment would be more severe.
Prosecutor Holly Clegg said the couple split up in October last year but continued to live in the same student house in Headingley.
Concerns were raised by her friends and housemates about Wilcox’s state of mind and she felt she had been “abandoned by everyone”.
In the early hours of October 18 last year, Wilcox entered the victim’s room and stood quietly for a minute.
She then jumped on the sleeping man and put a pillow over his face, pushing it down to suffocate him.
He was able to wrestle the pillow from her, but she then grabbed a pair of scissors from her back pocket and raised them over him, but he grabbed her wrist.
He was able to wrestle the scissors from her and threw them out of the window.
Another housemate tried to enter the room but Wilcox stopped them by pushing against the door.
She then ran from the house. Later arrested, the 23-year-old gave a no-comment interview.
Ms Clegg said there had been a previous report of her attacking the man with a mirror but no further action was taken that time, after the victim said he simply wanted her to receive help for her mental-health issues.
Wilcox, of Clare Hill, Huddersfield, was initially charged with attempted GBH with intent, which was later to reduced to intentional suffocation and threatening with a bladed article in a private
She admitted both offences. She has no previous convictions.
No mitigation was offered by her barrister after Judge Robin Mairs said he would not pass a custodial sentence.
He referred to glowing references from her friends and he said she was “clearly intelligent and talented”.
But he added: “You are intelligent enough to know two things - firstly, that actions have consequences, and secondly, it’s not always someone else’s fault.
“They had not abandoned you. They tried to help you.”
He gave her a 24-month community order, with 30 rehabilitation days to complete.
He told her it was an “exceptionally lenient course” and warned her: “If you do not engage, it will not go as well on the next occasion.”