SHE was stabbed many times in a terrifying ordeal.
And teenager Donna Hawkins, 14, told a murder trial the man with the knife was her own father.
The youngster – who survived the attack – told Leeds Crown Court she had pleaded: “Dad, why?” as she was stabbed. Donna suffered multiple wounds in the house in Hill Top, Slaithwaite, last September 23.
Her brother Ryan, four, was killed in the attack. Their father Christopher Hawkins, 47, denies murder and attempted murder.
The jury also heard from Ryan’s mother Valerie Gee who said her estranged husband Hawkins loved the little boy he is accused of killing.
Yesterday a jury of seven women and five men at Leeds Crown Court heard Donna, 14, describe the attack.
She said she had gone to pick up Ryan from their father’s house on Royd Street at around 12.30pm.
The four-year-old had spent the weekend with Hawkins, who had separated from Ryan’s mother, Valerie Gee, a few months earlier.
Donna said: “Ryan had wet himself, so I put him into his Spiderman black combats and put his trainers on.
“Then I got a text on my phone and my dad said ‘read it’. He was being proper nasty.”
Donna told the court that she noticed her brother looked unwell. She said: “He looked a little pale and my dad said he had been sick.”
Donna told Ryan, who was on the sofa, to put his coat on. She moved towards the kitchen door to leave.
She said: “I didn’t know my dad had been following me. He said: ‘I’m sorry’ and he looked proper worried.
“I saw the knife. He started stabbing me. He just did it again and again. I was on the floor telling him to stop.
“I said ‘dad, why?’ and then I told him: ‘I don’t hate you’. He stopped when I said that.
“I was panicking. I was in shock and spitting blood. I was trying to hold my tummy and my head was rolling backwards and forwards.”
Donna told the court that her father then turned to Ryan, who was still on the sofa.
She went on: “In a proper serious way he said: ‘I’m going to kill Ryan now’.
“He knelt down to Ryan’s level. He had the knife in his hand and it was raised up. I said: ‘I can’t watch this’.”Donna said she managed to unlock the kitchen door and escape on to the street.
She said: “I knew I had to take a chance, I had to try. I managed to unlock the door with my bad arm and lift myself up on the handle.”
Donna stumbled over to two young girls on Royd Street.
She said: “I told them: ‘I’ve been stabbed, help me.’ They looked at me, they didn’t think it was real.”
Passers-by Michelle White and Waqar Zaman tried to give first aid to Donna.
Donna said: “They were helping me. I was shouting at them to go get my brother because he was going to be killed. They kept ringing the ambulance because it was taking its time.”
Police and paramedics then arrived.
Donna said: “The policeman asked me my name, but I couldn’t answer.”
She was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, where she spent two days in intensive care and five days in a ward.
Donna made a video-taped statement to a police officer on October 1. It was played to the jury yesterday.
She also appeared in court in person to give evidence behind a curtain.
In the videotape Donna described how her father’s behaviour got worse as his marriage fell apart.
Donna said: “He started getting really petty and starting arguments over nothing. He would go to work and then go to drink.
“My mum would make him tea, but he would never come home at the right time.
“He would drink at the weekends. I used to hate Sundays. I used to go up to my room because I didn’t like it.”
Donna described how Hawkins had thrown knives at her mother while she and her elder sister, Natalie, were in the room.
She said her father’s behaviour made her suicidal.
Donna said: “I’ve tried to kill myself because of my dad. He used to hit me and call me a slag. He used to get proper vicious and send me some horrible texts.”
The night before the stabbing Donna said her father had called her on her mobile.
She said: “He kept repeatedly ringing me. I just didn’t answer sometimes because he rang so much.”
The case continues.
