An ambulance worker who texted a friend saying “I’ve smashed her head in. Oppsie!” after attacking her boss with a hammer in a row over shift patterns has been jailed for 20 years.
Stacey Smith waited outside Michala Morton’s home in Tameside, Greater Manchester, at 5.30am on 11 November last year and attempted to murder her in what police described as an “unprovoked and frenzied hammer attack which was filled with rage”.
The 46-year-old repeatedly hit the victim over the head with the hammer, causing “life-changing” head injuries, while screaming she was going to kill her. Morton, Smith’s manager at North West ambulance service, also suffered a broken wrist as she tried to lift her arm to defend herself.
A number of neighbours came out to help the seriously injured woman, giving her first aid and ensuring that the hammer Smith left behind was covered in a plastic bag ready to be examined by crime scene investigators, police said.
Smith later sent a text message to a friend saying: “I’ve done it. I’ve smashed her head in. Oppsie xx!”
Manchester crown court heard how the crime showed a “significant degree of planning” as Smith had found Morton’s address online and looked up her shift to wait outside. She then “pounced” on her victim, the court heard.
After the attack, Smith told her friend she would “go on the run” to Liverpool but police said she “instead came to her senses” and handed herself into Ashton police station, where she was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Smith told Greater Manchester police (GMP) officers the disagreement was after a long-running row over shift patterns, which had upset her and her wife, who also worked on Morton’s team. Smith pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but denied attempting to kill her manager.
Sentencing Smith to 20 years in prison, with a further five on licence, Judge Manley said she showed “very little remorse”, adding: “In fact it seems you feel you were justified in your actions, or at least driven to it. You harboured feelings of resentment and you demonstrated no reservations about trying to inflict really serious violence on a completely defenceless person.”
DC Stephen McNee of GMP’s Tameside criminal investigation department said: “This was a particularly violent attack on the victim which left her with serious and life-changing injuries. Physically injuries may heal, but the mental trauma of the attack will stay with the victim for life.”
