Mum stabbed breast cancer sufferer in the chest during Leeds street attack

Suzette Samuels armed herself with a knife during a row with her former partner and his girlfriend during the incident on Bexley Terrace, Harehills, Leeds.

A court heard the victim had been receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer and had to walk with the aid of a stick at the time of the incident on April 6 last year.

Andrew Espley, prosecuting, said Samuels’s relationship with her former partner ended five years ago and they had two children together.

On the day of the incident he had gone to Bexley Terrace with his girlfriend to visit friends.

Mr Espley said Samuels also lived on the same street and became angry when she saw her former partner playing football with their son.

Samuels came out of her home and shouted threats before taking her son home.

She then returned alone and tried to hit her ex partner.

Samuels grabbed the woman’s walking stick during a struggle and hit her former partner over her head with it.

The prosecutor said Samuels had a knife tucked into her leggings which she then used to stab the woman under left arm.

Mr Espley said the victim suffered a slash wound close to the area where she had recently undergone reconstructive breast surgery.

She spent five days in hospital after the attack.

The prosecutor said: “She was particularly vulnerable due to her personal circumstances.”

Samuels, 35, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of a bladed article.

Andrew Foley, mitigating, said mother-of-four Samuels had no previous convictions for violence and had pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage.

Mr Foley said Samuels took the knife to the scene as she wanted to persuade her former partner to go away but feared she would be attacked.

He said: “This is a short-lived incident in circumstances where the defendant did not plan to cause injury with a knife.”

Samuels was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work and take part in a 30-day rehabilitation programme.

Recorder David Osborne told Samuels: “You have received a suspended sentence only by the skin of your teeth.”