Paranoid man tried 'to rip partner's face apart' as she fed their four-week-old baby

A ‘paranoid’ man stabbed his partner during a violent and prolonged attack because he thought she was cheating on him, a court heard.

The assault by 29-year-old Timothy Philpott began when his partner was feeding their four-week-old son and ended, several minutes later, when he stabbed her in the chest, leaving the blade in the wound.

Neighbours in their Cannock street were so alarmed at the sound of her screams and the couple’s raised voices that they raced round to the house but Philpott had already fled through a first-floor window, Stafford Crown Court heard.

On the day before the attack in February the defendant had approached his partner carrying a hammer and a knife, accusing her of seeing someone who lived across the road, said Mr Michael Aspinall, prosecuting.

Philpott had put the weapons away when she threatened to call the police but ‘remained paranoid’ that she was having an affair, he added.

The following day, a Sunday, his partner went to bed early, to be woken at 1.30am by the baby’s cries to be fed.

She asked Philpott to hold the child and calm him while she prepared a bottle of milk but when she returned the defendant was asleep, leaving the child distressed, the court heard.

The mother-of-two was ‘angry’ and then noticed his mobile phone flashing and realised he had been using a dating app, said Mr Aspinall.

Philpott woke and snatched the phone from her hand as she was feeding the infant and rammed his fingers into her mouth from behind, also pushing her.

“She described it as if he was trying to rip her face apart,” said Mr Aspinall.

The 26-year-old managed to put the baby on the bed but the defendant got on top of her, the court heard.

As she screamed at him ‘You could have killed my baby’, he stopped and apologised, offering to leave the property.

But his partner asked for her phone back so she could call the police which led him to punch her in the face, causing her to hit her head on the bedroom wall and fall to the floor.

As she lay in the foetal position, he kicked her in the face, Mr Aspinall told the court.

Once more, Philpott was overcome with remorse but his partner told him he would not see their children as a result of the attack, so he told her ‘I might as well kill you’ and fetched a carving knife from the kitchen.

The court heard he stabbed her in the stomach before throwing her against the dressing table and attempting to slash her throat.

Philpott, of Laburnum Avenue, Cannock, pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

The case was adjourned until August 17 for sentencing.