A MAN who stabbed a woman with what was described as a sword following a midnight mass to celebrate the Christian Orthodox Easter has admitted he was trying to kill her.
Yosief Weldemaryam pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the attempted murder of Yodit Mogos in the early hours of Sunday April 8.
Ms Mogos, who is in her 30s and is believed to be Eritrean, was stabbed outside St Margaret’s Church in Walsgrave Road, Coventry, at around 3.15am.
She had been among a large number of people who had crowded into the church to celebrate a midnight mass to mark the Christian Orthodox Easter.
Weldemaryam (28) of no fixed address, sat in the dock flanked by staff from the Reaside psychiatric clinic in Rubury, Birmingham, where he has been held in a secure unit.
His barrister Adam Western said he had been found fit to enter a plea to the charge – but asked for sentencing to be adjourned for a second psychiatric report to be prepared on him.
Mr Western explained that Dr Karim Rajput, who prepared the initial report on Weldemaryam, had expressed the opinion that ‘a hybrid order is the appropriate disposal.’
Under a hybrid order, a judge orders a defendant to be detained under the Mental Health Act at a secure psychiatric unit for treatment – but also imposes the appropriate prison term for the offence.
The effect is that once a person is considered fit to be discharged following treatment, instead of being released into the community, they are transferred to a prison to serve the rest of the sentence.
And Mr Western pointed out that, for such an order to be made, there have to be reports from two psychiatrists, one of whom has to attend court to give oral evidence.
Adjourning the case until September for that to be done, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC commented: “I think there should be a PRS (pre-sentence report) as well.
“Although those doctors will be looking, plainly, towards the future, I want there to be a formal assessment by the probation service as to dangerousness.”
Remanding Weldemaryam in custody at Reaside, he said he also wanted the prosecution to obtain an up-to-date impact statement from the victim before the next hearing.
Judge Lockhart told Weldemaryam through a Tigrinya interpreter: “Further reports are required upon you before I can properly pass sentence on you.
“Those reports are going to be prepared, but we will not be ready to sentence you until the 9th of September.
“You will receive the appropriate level of credit for the plea you have tendered when you come before me on that day. In the meantime, I remand you in custody.”
