Woman tells court alleged attack with kitchen knife was accident

Wednesday 22 November 2023

A woman who wounded a man with a kitchen knife after she lunged at him told the Royal Court yesterday that she had not meant to cause an injury – but only wanted to stop him filming her on his mobile phone.

Nilza Vieira (37) – who denies a charge of grave and criminal assault – was giving evidence on the first day of her Assize trial at the Royal Court.

Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said the alleged attack took place on 25 November last year at 2am in the morning.

The jury of six men and six women were shown the kitchen knife she had used. They also sawn part of the video the man had recorded, in which Ms Vieira is seen to come towards him with the knife in her hand.

Crown Advocate Hallam said the alleged victim had shown the video to police officers shortly afterwards and Ms Vieira was arrested later that day.

She was interviewed by States police officers that afternoon and excerpts from her interview were read in court.

She said that the alleged victim had woken her up, and she was cutting a slice of cake when he was filming her and shouting abuse at her.

“He said: ‘You are crazy, you need to go for treatment,’” she related in the interview.

“I had a knife in my hand and went into the kitchen to cut the cake. My intention was to hit the phone to stop him recording. Accidentally the knife did scratch his leg.”

She added: “I’m not an aggressive person. I was very angry.”

The man sustained a wound to his upper right thigh but refused to see a police doctor.

And Advocate Rui Tremoceiro, defending, asked investigating officer PC Benedict Casson: “Did the man want to make a complaint?”

PC Casson confirmed: “No.”

The trial is expected to last two more days.