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Masked man stabbed my boy – Mum

Waikato Times | Tuesday, 02 December 2008

A teenage mother accused of stabbing her two-year-old son says the boy was attacked by a masked man who forced his way into her home.

Kim Knoll, 19, is charged with attempting to murder her son at her Te Aroha home on May 5 this year by stabbing him with a boning knife.

She also faces an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

At the start of her trial at the High Court in Hamilton yesterday, Crown prosecutor Louella Dunn told the court that Knoll had given two differing accounts of how her son received his stab wound.

The Crown alleges Knoll stabbed her son in the stomach at her Centennial Ave home and then tried to suffocate him with a pillow.

Ms Dunn told the jury that in an interview with police, Knoll said she had been confronted by a masked man in a nearby park on the day of the incident.

The man had been armed with a knife and demanded money.

Later that day, Knoll said, the man turned up at her home and forced his way into her bedroom where he stabbed her son and then tried to suffocate him.

In a second statement, however, Knoll said a tattooed man named “Wally” had accidentally stabbed the toddler while playing with a knife in her bedroom.

When her son started screaming, Knoll told police she “didn’t know what to do” and put a pillow over his face to stop him screaming.

The Crown alleges Knoll’s brother witnessed her smothering the toddler when he walked into her bedroom.

A few minutes later Knoll’s father returned home and found his grandson gasping for breath and blue in the face. He also had a wound across his stomach.

The child was taken to a Te Aroha emergency clinic and then on to Waikato Hospital.

The boy has since made a full recovery.

The court heard that Knoll and her family emigrated from South Africa two years ago.

Ms Dunn said that leading up to the alleged stabbing, Knoll had experienced “personal problems” with her ex-boyfriend, Jayden Te Moananui, and her older sister, Blanche Knoll.

Knoll had dated Mr Moananui early in the year and was allegedly distressed to discover he was dating her sister. On the day of the alleged stabbing, Knoll had confronted her sister about the relationship.

The Crown planned to call 12 witnesses in the week-long trial before Justice Andrews and a jury of three men and nine women.