Disabled knifelady spared jail
A wheelchair-bound woman who lured a man back to her flat in the early hours before attacking him with a knife has avoided jail.
Tracy Corkish, 44, asked Dimitrios Tsavdaris to help her home to her flat in Cruikshank Street, Clerkenwell, before pulling a kitchen knife on him.
She then lunged at police officers with the knife when they came to arrest her.
Corkish wept as she was told she would be spared immediate jail and given a suspended sentence at Southwark Crown Court today (thurs).
Judge Duncan Atkinson QC, said: ‘This court views any offence involving the use of a knife as very serious because the use of a knife has unpredictable outcomes.
‘You could very easily have killed him and you can appreciate the very serious trouble that you would then find yourself in.’
He added:’Police officers doing their duty in our city are entitled to protection from people who threaten them with knives.
‘This court will do what it can to protect the police.’
The judge said Corkish’s lack of convictions since 2014 was a sign she is ‘finally trying to sort yourself out’.
‘This is a turning point for you Ms Corkish – I very much hope that you will take advantage of it,’ he concluded.
Tim Nutley, prosecuting, explained; ‘Shortly before five in the morning the defendant and the victim met in the King’s Cross area.
‘The two were known to each other and they went back to the defendant’s flat in Cruikshank Street – both, it seems, had been drinking alcohol.’
‘Mr Tsavdaris said that he knows Tracy, he met her out on the street and that Tracy asked for help in getting home.’
Once they reached Corkish’s home she spilled beer on the floor.
Mr Tsavdaris told police: ‘The next thing I know she started stabbing me.
‘She was throwing things at me – knives, spoons and glasses.’
The prosecutor explained that at this stage Mr Tsavdaris felt a knife ‘puncture his arm’ before immediately fleeing the flat.
Police were called and found Corkish on her bedroom lying face down on her bed.
‘She sat upright, lunged towards the two closest officers with a kitchen knife in her hand.
‘The defendant threw the knife towards those two officers but thankfully missed.’
Corkish was tasered and handcuffed and where she had been laying on the bed was a razor blade and lighters.
The flat was a mess with a cutlery drawer dropped onto the floor and they seized three kitchen knives.
Mr Tsavdaris was taken to hospital where he was found to have suffered a minor cut to his arm.
Corkish admitted the offences on the first day of her scheduled trial last month.
The court heard how Corkish has a number of previous convictions for violent acts including assaulting four police officers.
She was said to not have been able to recall the incident as she was drunk and on drugs at the time.
Corkish was described as having ‘many complex problems’ and that her ‘life is in danger’ if she does not turn it around.
The court heard Corkish had her left leg amputated after she suffered a pulmonary embolism when she fell out of a window.
Corkish, of (4 Anwell House) Cruikshank Street, Clerkenwell, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years for one count each of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray.
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