James McKenna admits carrying out a planned knife attack on Joanne Sidaway but denies intending to kill her

THE JURY has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Carmarthen man accused of attempting to murder his former partner during a knife attack in Carmarthen Park.

James John McKenna, aged 57, of Bro Hedydd, Carmarthen, admits attacking Joanne Sidaway with a kitchen knife on January 29 this year.

He has pleaded guilty to wounding Ms Sidaway with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a bladed article in a public place, but denies attempted murder.

The central question for the jury is not whether McKenna carried out the attack, which he accepts, but whether he intended to kill Ms Sidaway or intended to cause her really serious injury and no more.

The case has been heard at Swansea Crown Court before Judge Paul Thomas KC. James Wilson prosecuted, while Caroline Rees KC represented McKenna.

The relationship

The jury heard that McKenna and Ms Sidaway first met online through a photography group in 2022 and began a relationship in September 2024.

McKenna said the relationship initially went well but ended in September 2025. The pair continued to see each other intermittently until Ms Sidaway brought the relationship to a final end in November.

Giving evidence in his defence, McKenna said he struggled to accept the relationship was over and described himself as distressed, sad and angry.

He claimed his mental health had deteriorated following the break-up, although the prosecution pointed out that no medical evidence had been presented to the court in support of that account.

McKenna said he saw Ms Sidaway about a week and a half before the attack, but she showed little interest in speaking to him. He told the jury that he lost his composure and became upset and angry.

Looking for Ms Sidaway

On January 29, McKenna placed a large kitchen knife inside a rucksack and went to places where he believed Ms Sidaway might be found.

He admitted visiting Carmarthen Park in the morning because he knew she regularly walked her dog there.

Asked by Judge Thomas why he had gone to the park, McKenna replied: “I was looking for her, your honour.”

He was carrying the concealed knife at the time and admitted that he had taken it because he wanted to cause Ms Sidaway really serious harm.

McKenna said no attack took place that morning because other people were present.

He later travelled to the museum in Abergwili, believing Ms Sidaway might be there, before returning to Carmarthen town centre and visiting Time Coffee Bar, which was close to a shop where she volunteered.

The prosecution said these movements demonstrated that McKenna had deliberately spent the day looking for his former partner.

CCTV evidence shown to the jury traced McKenna’s movements around Carmarthen and showed him returning to the park during the afternoon.

The court heard that he spent time close to the Picton Terrace entrance before seeing Ms Sidaway approaching with her dog.

The attack

McKenna admitted checking that the park was quiet and hiding in a hedge near the entrance.

He told the court that he crouched down to conceal himself and could hear Ms Sidaway speaking to her dog as she approached.

McKenna then emerged from the hedge and attacked her with the knife.

He estimated that the incident lasted between ten and 15 seconds and said he delivered around six or seven blows.

Ms Sidaway suffered injuries to her chest, upper arm and hands. The jury was shown photographs of four wounds around the chest area and cuts to her hands which forensic physician Professor Jason James-Payne described as consistent with defensive injuries.

Professor James-Payne said a single stab wound could be fatal if it penetrated the chest cavity or damaged the heart or lungs. He said whether such an injury proved fatal could be a matter of chance.

The jury also heard that Ms Sidaway’s coat contained marks consistent with nine stabbing actions and two slashes.

A woman walking her dog nearby heard screaming and saw a man running away from the bushes before finding Ms Sidaway bleeding.

During a 999 call, Ms Sidaway identified McKenna as her attacker and repeatedly asked for an ambulance. She said the attack had happened so quickly that she had been unable to use a whistle she was carrying.

Knife recovered from allotment shed

After the attack, McKenna ran from the park towards the Five Fields Allotments.

Police later recovered his rucksack from an open allotment shed. Inside was a bloodstained kitchen knife wrapped in a calendar.

The court heard that Ms Sidaway’s blood was found on the knife and McKenna’s fingerprint was found on its handle.

A photograph of McKenna and Ms Sidaway was also found inside the rucksack.

McKenna did not contact the emergency services or check on Ms Sidaway following the attack.

He remained in the Bronwydd area for several days before travelling by taxi and bus to Aberystwyth.

He was arrested on February 2 after attending Bronglais Hospital suffering from frostbite. McKenna said he knew he would be arrested when he entered the hospital and regretted not handing himself in sooner.

The prosecution case

In his closing speech, Mr Wilson told the jury that McKenna’s actions had been “planned, calculated and deliberate”.

The prosecution argued that McKenna’s anger about the end of the relationship had been building for some time and that he had chosen a large, sharp knife before deliberately searching for Ms Sidaway.

Mr Wilson said McKenna knew her routine, checked that the park was quiet, concealed himself in a hedge and waited until she was close before ambushing her.

He asked jurors to consider the number of blows, the parts of the body targeted and the potentially fatal consequences of repeatedly using a kitchen knife against an unarmed woman.

The prosecution argued that if McKenna had only intended to injure Ms Sidaway, there were numerous ways he could have done so without repeatedly stabbing towards her upper body.

Mr Wilson also highlighted McKenna’s decision to run away without seeking help, arguing that Ms Sidaway could have been left bleeding to death in the park.

He told the jury that the only reason she had survived was “pure luck”.

The defence case

Ms Rees accepted on McKenna’s behalf that the attack had been planned and that he had intended to cause Ms Sidaway really serious harm.

However, she argued that planning an attack did not necessarily prove that McKenna had planned to kill.

McKenna told the jury that he had been in a rage and had aimed generally towards Ms Sidaway’s upper body without looking directly at where the knife was landing.

He denied aiming for her heart, lungs, throat or other vital organs and said he had never wanted her to die.

The defence said there had been no previous threat by McKenna to kill Ms Sidaway and argued that he had the opportunity to kill her but did not do so.

Ms Rees also asked jurors to consider that the blows were delivered through Ms Sidaway’s clothing and that the medical evidence described the force used as at least moderate, rather than the highest level of force.

She said McKenna had admitted behaving in an appalling and seriously criminal way, but warned that this did not automatically make him guilty of attempted murder.

The defence argued that the evidence was at least equally consistent with an intention to cause grievous bodily harm, the offence to which McKenna has already pleaded guilty.

Ms Rees said the prosecution had to make the jury sure that McKenna intended to kill and that, if they were not sure, their verdict on attempted murder must be not guilty.

The issue for the jury

Summing up the case, Judge Thomas reminded jurors that the prosecution carries the burden of proving guilt and that McKenna does not have to prove anything.

He said it was accepted that McKenna took a large kitchen knife to Carmarthen Park and repeatedly used it against his former partner.

The issue was why he had done so.

The jury must decide whether McKenna intended to cause really serious harm but no more, or whether he intended to kill Ms Sidaway.

The jury has now retired to consider its verdict.

A HAVERFORDWEST man has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of raping and indecently assaulting a girl during the 1980s.

Alan Pyart, aged 60, of North Court, Haverfordwest, was found guilty following a trial at Swansea Crown Court earlier this year.

Pyart had denied raping and indecently assaulting the victim, who was under the age of 16 at the time of the offences.

The case returned to court for sentencing after being adjourned for more than two months so that a further psychiatric report could be prepared.

Judge Geraint Walters sentenced Pyart to seven years in prison for rape and four years for indecent assault. The sentences will run concurrently, meaning he will serve an overall custodial term of seven years.

Pyart was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order and will remain on the sex offenders register for life.

He had previously been remanded in custody while awaiting sentence.

Reporting restrictions are in place which legally protect the identity of the victim.

Detective Inspector Sarah Totterdale, of Pembrokeshire CID, praised the victim for coming forward many years after the abuse took place.

She said the case demonstrated the lasting effect sexual abuse can have on victims and their families, adding that it was never too late to seek justice.

DI Totterdale said: “I would like to commend the victim for the immense courage she has shown in coming forward and speaking about what happened to her all those years ago.

“Abuse of this nature can leave deep and long-lasting scars, but it is never too late to seek justice.

“We hope this conviction and sentence sends a clear message that Dyfed-Powys Police will pursue offenders, no matter how much time has passed.”

She encouraged anyone who has experienced sexual abuse, either recently or in the past, to contact police, saying they would be listened to, supported and taken seriously.

Information about reporting rape and sexual assault, as well as details of available support services, can be found through the Dyfed-Powys Police website.

Police examine care given to Valdo Calocane before he killed three people in Nottingham

THE MENTAL health trust responsible for treating Haverfordwest-raised Valdo Calocane before he killed three people in Nottingham is now the subject of a corporate manslaughter investigation.

Northumbria Police has begun examining the care and treatment provided to Calocane by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust between 2020 and 2022.

The outside force is conducting the investigation on behalf of Nottinghamshire Police, whose own contact with Calocane before the attacks has been scrutinised during a separate public inquiry.

The trust has confirmed that it will cooperate fully with detectives.

Calocane grew up in Haverfordwest after moving to Britain with his family and attended the former Sir Thomas Picton School, now part of Haverfordwest High VC School.

He later moved to Nottingham, where he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Nottingham.

In the early hours of June 13, 2023, Calocane fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar as they walked home after celebrating the end of their university exams.

He then killed 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates before stealing his van and deliberately driving into three pedestrians, leaving them seriously injured.

Calocane pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and three counts of attempted murder.

He was sentenced in January 2024 to an indefinite hospital order and is being held at a high-security psychiatric hospital.

The decision to investigate the NHS trust represents a significant escalation in attempts to establish whether the deaths resulted not only from individual errors, but from serious organisational and management failures.

There has been no decision to prosecute the trust, and the opening of an investigation does not mean that any criminal offence has been proven.

Under corporate manslaughter legislation, prosecutors would need to establish that the way an organisation’s activities were managed caused a death and amounted to a gross breach of a duty of care.

The involvement of senior management must also have been a substantial part of the alleged breach. An organisation convicted of the offence can receive an unlimited fine, although individuals cannot be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter itself.

Repeated contact with mental health services

Calocane was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had repeatedly come into contact with mental health professionals and the police during the three years before the attacks.

He was sectioned four times while under the care of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Despite concerns about violence, his refusal to take medication and his repeated failure to attend appointments, Calocane was eventually discharged from specialist mental health services and referred back to his GP.

A statutory public inquiry has heard that members of the Early Intervention in Psychosis team had effectively “lost” contact with him.

An independent NHS England investigation published in February 2025 identified clear failings in the care and treatment provided to Calocane.

NHS England apologised to the victims’ families and said the system, including the health service, had got the case wrong.

Mental health trusts across England were subsequently instructed to review their procedures, including policies which allowed seriously ill patients to be discharged simply because they had stopped attending appointments.

The police investigation is separate from the Nottingham Inquiry, which is being chaired by former senior judge Her Honour Deborah Taylor.

The inquiry’s main evidence hearings took place between February and June this year, during which evidence was heard about risk assessments, communication between agencies, decisions surrounding Calocane’s treatment and the failure to arrest him on an outstanding warrant.

Closing submissions are scheduled to be heard on September 8 and 9, with the inquiry’s final findings and recommendations expected in 2027.

Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby Webber, described the corporate manslaughter investigation as the “beginning of the reckoning”.

She said the development should send shockwaves through public services and called for everyone involved to cooperate with complete candour and transparency.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: “Northumbria Police, acting on behalf of Nottinghamshire Police, have begun an investigation into matters relating to the care and treatment of Valdo Calocane.

“We know how important the independent inquiry and police investigation are for the affected families, the survivors and our local communities.

“We will, of course, be co-operating fully with Northumbria Police.”