Drumchapel woman, who tried to kill her own Mum jailed

A daughter who brutally choked and stabbed her mum and then asked her lesbian lover, “do you want a shot?” has been jailed for four years and 11 months. Helena Happell, 43, was told by judge Lord Matthews: “You have both pled guilty to a vicious assault on a 58-year-old woman in her own flat causing her severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

"The assault could have cost her her life. As if that wasn't bad enough, the victim was your mother."

Her lover Mary Hawthorn, 34, was jailed for four years and three months for her part in the attack.

Just days before the bloodbath, Happell had sent a text message saying: “I’m dying to get rid of her.”

Happell and Hawthorn turned up at Loretta Happell’s Glasgow home around noon on February 17 last year.

The three women had had a “heated argument” in the pub a few days previously.

When the couple appeared at her door, Loretta Happell, 58, told them: “This is my house. If both of you start then I’m going to throw you out.”

Hawthorn began walking away and asked: “Are you coming, babe?”

But prosecutor Owen Mullan told the High Court in Glasgow: “The next thing Loretta Happell recalls is being grabbed by her daughter and bent forwards over the sofa.

“She then wrapped a phone charger cable around her neck. Loretta shouted, ‘Leave me alone’. “Happell replied, ‘No, I’m not f*g letting you go’.”

After stabbing her mum in the neck and body, Happell turned to Hawthorn and asked: “Do you want a shot?”

As their terrified victim struggled to her feet, twisted Hawthorn joined in the savagery and began punching and kicking her.

Her daughter then cut the intercom at the flat in Great Western Road, Glasgow, so Loretta couldn’t contact the concierge to come to her aid.

Eventually Helena Happell called for an ambulance, while Hawthorn urged her to tell the 999 operator that someone else was responsible for the assault.

Happell claimed the pair had “just arrived” to find her mother had been “stabbed several times” and was “bleeding awful bad”.

Cops found Loretta outside the flat sobbing and with blood pouring from wounds to her cheek, throat, body and legs. Doctors said the injuries from her ordeal had the “potential to be life threatening”.

She later told officers that her daughter and Hawthorn were behind the sickening assault.

When detectives checked Helena Happell’s mobile phone, they found a message sent to a “Mary Crawford” just five days before the attack.

It read: “I’m dying to get rid of her.”

Happell and Hawthorn, from Drumchapel in Glasgow, admitted assaulting Loretta to her severe injuries, permanent disfigurement and danger of her life.

The pair had been due to appear at the High Court to face the accusations in January this year.

But they failed to turn up and a judge issued warrants for their arrests.

They were eventually traced and appeared from custody to face justice.

Defence counsel Geoffrey Forbes said Happell had an “abusive and neglectful childhood” and that it was traumatic and chaotic.

He said her actions were premeditated “to an extent” but that she “never intended to kill her mother, she just wanted to scare her and get her out of her life”.

Lord Matthews asked: “How does stabbing her on the throat area scare her?”

The judge accepted Happell had an unhappy childhood and that her mother had contributed to that.

Advocate Donna Armstrong, for Hawthorn said: “She has expressed remorse and regret for her actions on the day in question, she recognises the consequences of this assault.”

The court heard she has learning difficulties and mental health issues.