A violent boyfriend who subjected his lover to two

A violent boyfriend who subjected his lover to two ‘dreadful’
knife attacks was jailed for two and a half years on Thursday.

Tina McGraw, 30, decided not to go to police after the first
incident because Scotsman James Opray’s mother had just died.

But after stabbing her again a week later jobless Opray, 25, was
arrested, a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

He was convicted of twice wounding Miss McGraw with intent to
cause her grevious bodily harm.

Opray, of the Hillside Estate, South Tottenham, had denied the
charges.

Judge Gerald Gordon told him: ‘To attack anyone with a
kitchen knife of this type is truly dreadful.

‘To do it twice in a week is by any standard of behaviour
obscene.

‘
Judge Gordon said that after his mother’s death there was a
‘period of unhappiness’ for Opray.

‘But that cannot form any excuse at all.

‘
Opray received 12 months imprisonment in relation to the first
stabbing with 18 months consecutive for the second more serious
attack, making two and a half years jail in all.

The jury were told that two years ago Opray had moved to London
from Crowflats Road, Uddingston, Strathclyde, and was living with Miss
McGraw in a flat on the Hillside Estate.

During September last year his mother died and he took to
drinking heavily, said Mrs.

Ann Evans, prosecuting.

On September 12 for no apparent reason depressed Opray thrust a
kitchen knife into Miss McGraw’s right thigh while she was lying in
bed.

She later received treatment for the injury at a doctors’ surgery
and at that stage decided not to report the matter to police after he
left for Uddingston.

The court heard that six days later he returned and continued to
drink ‘a great deal of alcohol.

‘
During the afternoon of September 19, Opray told his girlfriend
to go out shoplifting for him.

But when she refused he launched another violent attack.

The jury were told on this occasion he thrust the ten inch bladed
knife into her right forearm before she fled bleeding heavily from the
flat.

Miss McGraw was shortly afterwards taken to hospital where the
wound was stitched.

When later that day police officers escorted her back to her home
they found him asleep with the knife next to him.

Giving evidence in the trial Opray could not recall how on the
first occasion Miss McGraw had received her injuries, but claimed he
was not responsible for them.

He told the jury that during the second incident they had a fight
and the stabbing was accidental.

ENDS