Bishop's Waltham attempted murder case: Husband tells court about phone call his wife made after she was stabbed

Les Page, 71, told jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court how he received the call from his desperate wife Julie Page who demanded he returned home after reporting Paula Ayres, 51, to Fareham police for thieving nearly £4,000 from the couple’s bank account.

Mr Page received the nightmare call after Ayres savaged her 63-year-old ‘good friend’ with a Stanley knife in her neck and back.

Ayres has admitted theft of £3,900 and causing grievous bodily harm with intent but denies attempted murder.

Speaking of the moment he heard about the attack on his wife in their own kitchen in Oak Road, Bishop’s Waltham, on July 22 last year, Mr Page said: ‘I received call from Julie saying “you’ve got to get home quickly because Paula has cut me about and there’s blood everywhere”.’

The husband, giving evidence behind a curtain, added: ‘Julie said “Paula’s stabbed me...she’s cut me with a knife”.’

Mr Page said prior to the attack he told his wife he was ‘going to Fareham’ while she chatted with Ayres on the sofa in their house - alerting the defendant that he was planning on reporting her for theft.

Quizzed over whether Ayres had lent him the Stanley knife, Mr Page scoffed at the suggestion. ‘I absolutely disagree,’ he said. ‘I don’t need one, I’m not very good around the house. But if I did I would just buy one.’

Meanwhile Angela Edwards, who was friends with both Ayres and Mrs Page, told the court she went over to the latter’s house where the pair were before being asked by Ayres to go out.

She said: ‘Paula asked me to go and get Coffee Mate but normally she drinks tea.

‘When I came back and was halfway across the road she asked me to go and get a jar of coffee.

Ms Edwards said Ayres then appeared from Mrs Page’s house before they walked to the defendant’s house. ‘She came out of Julie’s house and shut the door. I noticed she had her right hand bandaged,’ she said.

‘There was blood on the tea towel. She said she cut her hand on the tin opener when I asked what she had done.’

The court heard how Ayres went to her washing machine where she put the Stanley knife in with the tea towels. ‘She put her tea towels straight in the machine which was making a clunking noise,’ Ms Edwards said.

Ayres continued the pretence of normality by offering her friend a cup of tea before police turned up - with the defendant scuttling out the back door before she was arrested.

‘Police came to the front and back of Paula’s house. Paula went to go out the back when a police officer asked “are you Paula?” She said “I haven’t done anything”. She was then arrested,’ Ms Edwards said.

The court heard how Mrs Page was ‘calm but in pain’ after the attack where she suffered two deep lacerations to the neck, five stab marks to the back, two possible rib fractures and an injury to her ear from a ripped earring.

Ayres, of Willow Road, Bishop’s Waltham, declined to give evidence at the trial. But in a police interview she said ‘at no time did I withdraw money without permission’ before stating she only did so when asked by Mrs Page.

(Proceeding)