Harrogate woman jailed for 22 years for attempting to murder ex-lover’s partner with large carving knife

Clare Bailey, 44, a secondary-school maths teacher and mother-of-two, was wearing a red wig, blue Covid mask and sunglasses when she rang the doorbell at her former lover Christopher Russell’s home in Harrogate intent on murder.

When Mr Russell’s wife Emma, a senior hospital technician, answered the door, Bailey - holding a bunch of flowers in front of her face to disguise herself - told her the bouquet was “for her”, then barged into the hallway brandishing a large carving knife and began “stabbing, hacking and slashing” her all over her body, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Rupert Dodsworth said that Mrs Russell was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, chest, stomach and arms.

“Emma Russell could be heard screaming for help and was in considerable distress,” he added.

She tried desperately to fend off Bailey, who remained silent during the ferocious attack, but this only caused more “deep” wounds to her hands.

“It was a sustained attack (with) repeated stabbing of the victim while she was lying helpless on the ground,” said Mr Dodsworth.

Within seconds of the attack, Mrs Russell’s teenage daughter came downstairs and witnessed the horror unfolding in the doorway.

She tried to get Bailey off her mother, only for the deranged attacker to turn to her still brandishing the carving knife, forcing her to flee upstairs, calling for help.

Video footage of the attack captured Bailey continuing to stab and slash Mrs Russell while bending over the stricken victim.

Bailey, from the West Midlands, then got up and scarpered, leaving Mrs Russell lying “drenched” in blood and taking the knife and flowers with her.

Neighbours and passers-by saw Bailey walking calmly down the street.

One neighbour described her as looking “super casual and smartly dressed”.

It was only when he noticed the front door to Mrs Russell’s house was slightly ajar that he realised the full horror of what had occurred, but when he ran back up the street to look for Bailey, she had disappeared.

Another witness said he saw Bailey walking off serenely with what appeared to be a 30cm-long carving knife.

As she lay bleeding on the floor surrounded by paramedics, Mrs Russell, whose face was ashen, said to one of her neighbours: “Please don’t let me die.”

She had suffered multiple stab and slash wounds all over her body, including to her neck, chest and arms, and a puncture wound to her stomach.

She also suffered a liver laceration, a colon injury, bleeding to the bowel and multiple tendon injuries.

She was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by ambulance and rushed into intensive care where she underwent emergency surgery to her stomach and had a stoma inserted for bowel leakage.

She remained in intensive care for four days and was kept in hospital for a month for further exploratory surgery.

An MRI scan revealed she had suffered a seizure and a brain syndrome which required anti-epilepsy medication.

She discharged herself on 27 July against doctors’ advice because of her “life-changing” injuries.

An LGI doctor said the stab wounds to Mrs Russell’s neck and stomach were “within millimetres of being a threat to life”.

Bailey was arrested the following morning at her home in Dudley, near Birmingham.

She claimed she was not at the scene and when presented with video footage of her being on the Russells’ doorstep at the time in question, she claimed to have amnesia and claimed it wasn’t her.

Police searched her home and found her blood-stained clothes in the washing machine, a bloodied tissue, the Covid mask, and the red wig, the bunch of flowers and gloves in a bin bag.

Footage from a Sainsbury’s supermarket near the Russells’ home showed she had bought the accoutrements, including Dettol hand wipes and a box of gloves, at the store just before launching her savage attack at about 4.50pm.

She went into the supermarket’s toilets to change her leggings and footwear before the attack.

Examination of her mobile phone showed that she had sent seven text messages to Mr Russell on the morning of the attack.

“She told him she didn’t understand why he wasn’t speaking to her,” said Mr Dodsworth.

“She asked why he had blocked her on Facebook and repeatedly told him how much she loved him.”

At about 10.20am that day, she sent a message to her school saying she couldn’t make it into work that day because of a medical mishap and was “having problems” with her poorly son.

But police ANPR cameras showed that she was driving up the motorway northwards, bound for the Russells’ home in Harrogate.

When the school called her in the afternoon, she said she was in her kitchen “getting a doctor’s appointment and would be back in the following day”.

An hour later, she was at Sainsbury’s in Harrogate getting prepared to carry out the grisly act.

When distraught Mr Russell sent her a text message following the attack asking her where she had been at time of the stabbing, Bailey told him: “Is everything okay? Why would you think I’d be up there?”

When she told him his wife had been stabbed, Bailey “feigned a lack of knowledge and offered sympathy”.

Bailey, of The Riddings, Pedmore, was charged with attempted murder but initially denied the offence.

A trial was scheduled but she ultimately changed her plea to guilty.

She appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.

Mr Dodsworth said that Bailey and Mr Russell had known each other since childhood in the area where they grew up and he was the best friend of her brother.

A sexual relationship began in 2019 when they were reunited after 20 years at her brother’s wedding and continued over the course of a few years during which Bailey and Mr Russell met up on a “handful” of occasions, mainly at hotels.

“It was clear to Mr Russell that (Bailey) wanted him to leave his wife,” said Mr Dodsworth.

“He accepted he may have given her the (wrong) impression he might (leave his wife).”

At Christmas 2019, Mr Russell answered a knock on the door at about midnight to find a bunch of flowers and cardboard love notes on the doorstep.

No-one was at the door, but a woman was seen running up the street.

The handwritten notes were intended to suggest that Mrs Russell was having an affair and that the flowers had been left by a lover to try to cause a rift in the marriage.

One of the notes read: ‘I’ll keep on waiting until I can spend (time) with you’.

Mrs Russell, who worked as a sterile-services hospital technician, also received a call at her workplace from someone telling her: “I know what he’s up to.”

Despite Bailey’s wicked machinations, the marriage remained intact and in March last year, Mr Russell told her the affair was over.

“He said (his children) were (his) priority (but) she seemed unwilling to accept the decision,” said Mr Dodsworth.

Mr Russell blocked Bailey on Facebook but in May 2022 he went out for a walk for a lunchtime break from work and felt a “tap on the shoulder”.

“He turned around to see the defendant,” said Mr Dodsworth.

“When he asked her why she was there, she said she was there to see him.

"He told her the relationship was over and that this couldn’t keep happening.

"That was the last time that Christopher Russell had contact with her.”

In a statement read out in court, Mrs Russell said she had since lost her job at the hospital due to the severity of her injuries which had severely restricted her mobility to the extent that she now relied on a wheelchair to go out, had to sleep downstairs and was unable to carry out even the most basic household chores.

She had to use crutches in her home, couldn’t cook, relied on the care of her husband and daughter, couldn’t sleep and suffered flashbacks, panic attacks and nightmares about the gruesome attack.

"She had no feeling in her right leg or hands, had suffered nerve damage and had been told by doctors that the feeling in her limbs may never return.

She was still in severe pain, still having monthly hospital appointments and physiotherapy and receiving counselling to help her deal with the huge trauma and “mental scars”.

Worse still, her husband had had to give up work to look after her and they were both now on benefits.

She was now on “constant edge” whenever someone rang the doorbell or walked past the house, she had lost all her independence and she feared she would never be able to work again.

Defence barrister Curtis Myrie said Bailey had a clear understanding of the misery and trauma she had caused the Russell family and was “genuinely remorseful”.

He said that her problems started in 2019 following the breakdown of her “very difficult” marriage which left her looking after her children on her own and led to a drink problem and mental-health issues.

“Nevertheless, she managed to maintain a very respectable job as a teacher at a secondary school, teaching maths,” he added.

“She struggled to deal with life, struggled to cope with life and she turned to alcohol and the extramarital affair with Mr Russell was something which represented a haven from these very difficult circumstances in her life.

“The end of that relationship with Mr Russell was something she took very badly and (it was) difficult for her to come to terms with.”

He said that Bailey suffered from an emotional and personality disorder, although a doctor’s report noted that there were no underlying serious mental-health problems that could explain such behaviour.

Judge Robin Mairs said it was clear that Bailey had seen Mrs Russell as a “stumbling block” to her relationship with Mr Russell and “to your future happiness”.

He said that Bailey had tried to “poison one side against the other” by trying to insinuate that they were both having affairs.

He told Bailey: “Emma Russell had done you no harm (and) it would appear that she was largely unaware of your existence.

"You slashed and stabbed repeatedly at all parts of Emma Russell’s body.

“You remained silent while she frantically called out for help and called out in pain.

"For a period of about 90 seconds you hack, slash and stab repeatedly at the prostrate body of Emma Russell.

“Your intention you admit, by your guilty plea, was to murder her.”

He said the effect on Mrs Russell and her family had been “extreme” and life-altering.

Bailey was jailed for 22 years and four months and slapped with a lifetime restraining order banning her from contacting Mrs Russell and her family.