Toowoon Bay: Sam Conway pleads guilty to car park stabbing
Sam Conway had been smoking ‘ice’ three of four days a week when he “just lost it” and stabbed his ex-girlfriend’s new male friend in the Toowoon Bay car park.
Central Coast
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A jealous man has pleaded guilty to stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s new male friend in “a crime of passion” and then begged his mum for advice.
Sam Conway, of Killarney Vale, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, reckless wounding in company, having a knife in public and using a prohibited weapon in Wyong Local Court on Tuesday.
The court heard the pleas came after the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed to withdraw a number of more serious offences including attempted murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Appearing via video link from Long Bay Jail, the 27-year-old said little during his matter’s brief mention where an amended charge certificate and an agreed statement of facts were tendered.
The facts said Conway was in a relationship with a woman until September 2018 when she started spending time with another man.
About 10.30pm on December 17, 2018, the woman and her new male friend were sitting in her car smoking cigarettes and listening to music in the Toowoon Bay car park when Conway approached in his brother’s car and parked behind, blocking them from reversing away.
Conway got out of the car and approached the passenger’s side door and tasered the man in the neck through the open window.
He then opened the door and “threw his arm inside” the car and stabbed the man in the chest with what the victim later described as “a brand new knife, a hunting knife”.
The pair wrestled briefly before the victim was able to grab Conway’s wrist to prevent him from stabbing him again.
The agreed facts stated Conway’s brother James Conway handed him the taser he had used earlier and Sam Conway was able to “shock (the victim) again to release his grip”.
Conway then stabbed him again in the upper arm.
Conway’s ex-girlfriend got out of the car and punched him in the back of the head and screamed “please stop”.
While this was happening James Conway said “have you been with him?” and “what are you doing you f … ing slut you have been with him”.
She said she had not been with the victim but James Conway made her shake on it.
She and Sam Conway walked around to the back of the car where she asked him “what has just happened?”.
“Suddenly Sam headbutted (her) causing his forehead to connect with her nose,” the facts read.
Sam and James Conway left in their car while the woman drove the victim to The Entrance Police Station.
He was later flown to Liverpool Hospital.
Police conducted a search at the Conway’s mother’s house at Long Jetty the next day, while she spoke to police at Wyong.
She had a text from Sam Conway which read: “I will need to talk to you face-to-face, I have done wrong … just not as wrong as you will get told”.
“I live a quite (sic) life and she has done something to put me away,” the text continued.
“For the first time ever I need you, my mum, more than ever … this girl has ruined me.”
Conway was arrested a month later on January 20, 2019, and in his police interview said he “had just recovered from a bender” using the drug ice three or four times a week.
He said he had become paranoid so he got a knife from someone and put it in the back or passenger’s side of his ex-girlfriend’s car.
“It was a crime of passion, in a way, I just lost it,” he told police.
“I just wanted to scare him with my taser.”
Conway will appear at Gosford District Court on October 24 to set a date for sentence.
His brother James Conway was charged with being an accessory.
He is yet to enter any plea and his matter remains before the courts.
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