Married before murder bid

TWO women accused of attempting to murder a 13-year-old Littlehampton boy were "married" and had their lesbian relationship blessed the day before the attack, a jury heard this week.

Gemma McGarvie, 18, told Lewes Crown Court about the "marriage" ceremony and described the events later that day, including a party which the boy had attended at her South Terrace, Littlehampton, flat.

But she denied laying a finger on the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and put the blame for the vicious attack, in which he was stabbed 23 times, on her lover, Lorraine Large, 22, of Foxes Croft, Barnham.

The women are alleged to have taken the boy from McGarvie s bedsit during the party and led him across the road to The Green, where the attack took place. He was found later, lying in a pool of blood and barely alive.

McGarvie claimed Large had left the party on three separate occasions to attack the boy who, she said, had cried for his mother before eventually losing consciousness.

Paul Dunkels, QC, defending Large, suggested to the court that McGarvie made it known she always carried a knife.

She replied: "The only time I carried a knife was when I went fishing, or when I was working in Petsmart. I never used a weapon, ever."

Mr Dunkels then told the jury that, while working as a prostitute, McGarvie had boasted about using a razor blade on a client who had no money.

She said: "That never happened. I always make them pay first. It s one of the conditions."

McGarvie admitted she had given the teenager a cold shower after he had been sick, but said she had done it to try to sober him up. She denied being furious with him for vomiting in her rented flat.

He had been sitting in front of a radiator wrapped in towels, she said, when Large had dragged him outside and then attacked him.

She thought Large was just going to "give him a slap", but when the attack became more serious, she was too scared of her girlfriend to intervene.

"Lorraine has always said to me: 'When I see blood, I want to see more ," McGarvie told the court.

Richard Anelay, QC, prosecuting, asked McGarvie: "You are trying to portray her as an animal who lost control while you stood there, petrified?"

She replied: "That s exactly what happened. She was making stabbing movements towards his stomach, but I didn t know if it went in his stomach or in the mud.

"I lifted up his tee-shirt to see what damage she d done. I shouted to her to stop it."

When asked why she did not grab hold of Large, McGarvie replied: "Because she s stronger and faster than me. It s like a doberman and a Jack Russell she hurt me before."

Large, she said, had gone back outside twice more to attack the boy, who suffered a total of 23 wounds, including his throat being slit.

"She was like a madwoman. What she did was sick. She needs to go to prison for it," said McGarvie.

Both women deny attempted murder and wounding with intent.

The case continues.