Hero grabbed chair to save small girl being stabbed in head in Port Stephens
A terminal cancer patient is being hailed a hero after grabbing a chair and confronting a knife-wielding woman in Salamander Bay last night — and rescuing a little girl who she had allegedly stabbed in the head.
Newcastle
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A terminal cancer patient is being hailed a hero after grabbing a chair and confronting a knife-wielding woman — and rescuing a little girl who she had allegedly stabbed in the head.
Rohen Andrews had only been out of hospital a day, after six weeks of radiotherapy, when his partner Rebecca Wallis told him she had just seen a woman trying to stab a man in a car, while a little girl was crying at the side of the road, near their Port Stephens home on Tuesday.
Ms Wallis said she had witnessed the alleged attack on the 45-year old man, at the intersection of Scott Circuit and Soldiers Point Rd, Salamander Bay, in which Chloe May Geale, 26, allegedly got into the car and tried to stab him with a knife covered by a sheath, while his 15-year-old daughter in the car looked on.
Ms Wallis noticed a little girl nearby and rushed home to tell Mr Andrews to go and investigate.
“The little girl was crying and distressed,” Ms Wallis said.
Mr Andrews ran from his house and grabbed a chair from a fish and chip shop across the road before he approached Geale at a bus stop.
He said Geale started ranting at him, waving a knife and a pair of scissors.
“She was clearly agitated,” he said. “She came at me and I put the chair in between her and myself. All I saw was the little girl in distress and I thought I have to do what I’ve got to do.”
Mr Andrews said he followed Geale down the street to an IGA, where she is accused of confronting a 44-year-old man outside the shop, allegedly lunging at him and striking him in the chest and back, this time without the sheath on the knife.
“A gentleman was stabbed and I told everyone to get out of the store before I closed the door,” Mr Andrews said.
The woman entered the store and allegedly chased down a 50-year-old man and stabbed him in the back, before turning the knife on the little girl and stabbing her in the head several times before dragging her through the aisles by her hair.
Three customers and two workers ran to the back store room and locked the door while Mr Andrews locked the front door to prevent the woman from leaving.
“I went back inside and there was blood everywhere and I was looking for the little girl who was running down the aisles,” Mr Andrews said.
“The woman dropped the knife and I tried to kick it away before helping the young girl.
“I had to reassure her before she finally ran into my arms and I took her outside to where police had just arrived.”
IGA worker Albert Phagure said Mr Andrews was a local who came into the store all the time and was brave to try to help the little girl.
“The woman had blood all over her face and the girl had blood everywhere too, it was horrendous,” Mr Phagure said. “The little girl was crying.”
The store worker said they had locked themselves in the storage section out the back as the incident unfolded.
When police arrived, officers allege Geale punched a senior constable twice to the face.
She also had self-inflicted stab wounds to her head, and was taken to The Mater Hospital for treatment and assessment.
The child was taken to John Hunter Hospital with several lacerations to her scalp and the other victims — unknown to the woman — were taken to Nelson Bay Poly Clinic.
CCTV vision from a Thai restaurant near the grocery store showed a woman and a girl running past around the time of the incident.
Geale was later charged with 11 offences including four counts of being armed with intent to commit indictable offence, three of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, wound person intend to cause grievous bodily harm, affray, assault police officer in execution of duty and resist or hinder police in execution of duty.
On Wednesday afternoon Newcastle Local Court was told Geale had undergone a mental health assessment and was deemed not to be suffering a mental illness or to be mentally unwell.
Her lawyer told the court she found this unusual, given medical staff tried to give Geale antipsychotics and Valium and police found her hard to interview.
Geale was refused bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court and the matter was adjourned to Raymond Terrace Local Court on Monday, where the accused will appear via video link.