Woman who worked for domestic abuse charity stabs ex-boyfriend

A woman who worked for a domestic violence charity has been jailed for three years after stabbing her ex-boyfriend.

Jayne Rudd, 32, stabbed Sam Leopold three times in January just weeks after he won a restraining order against her because of the domestic abuse she subjected him to.

Rudd, a former communications officer at Olive Pathway, a Manchester-based domestic violence charity, had previously been given a suspended sentence for another attack on Mr Leopold.

Manchester Crown Court heard that in January, Mr Leopold was sleeping in a friend’s living room when Rudd let herself in at 6am, despite being banned from contacting Mr Leopold under the terms of the restraining order.

Mr Leopold rushed to close the room’s door to prevent Rudd getting in – only for her to force it off its hinges and use a kitchen knife to punch holes in it.

Mr Leopold suffered three injuries in the attack, including a slashed wrist, before he fled to a neighbouring house and called the police.

Officers later found Rudd asleep in a drunken stupor on the living room floor before arresting her.

The court heard that Rudd had previously been given 34 weeks in jail suspended for 18 months in June 2023 after she became verbally aggressive towards Mr Leopold in a local pub and then punched him.

He hid from her but Rudd subsequently hounded him with 300 texts apologising for her volatile behaviour.

In September 2022, Rudd was ordered to complete a 12-month community order and 100 hours after she mauled one trainee policeman on the hand and lashed out at a policewoman as four officers detained her for refusing to leave a property.

‘Dangerous to be around’

In a statement, Mr Leopold, a tree surgeon from Altrincham, Cheshire, said he “became used to being assaulted by her”.

He said: “She is dangerous to be around and this latest incident is clear evidence of that.”

“It doesn’t matter if she has a non-molestation order or a restraining order to protect me. She will always find a way back to me and that makes me feel unsafe.”

The court heard from a psychiatrist who examined her who said Rudd had an “emotionally unstable personality disorder” and a “tendency to self-destruct”.

‘A chaotic, toxic relationship’

Brendan O’Leary, Rudd’s counsel, said his client had mental issues dating back to a childhood trauma.

“There were suicide attempts from the age of 14 onwards and she has a borderline personality disorder,” he told the court.

“At the time of these offences she was clearly a very unwell woman and this was a chaotic, toxic relationship.”

Sentencing Rudd to three years in prison, the judge told her that she was “a highly intelligent woman but with a very troubled history”.

He also gave her a lifelong restraining order preventing her from contacting Mr Leopold.