I was savaged with 12-inch kitchen knife & ‘scalped’ by crazed school pal in row over ex… my torment had only just begun
“I DIDN’T even know how many times I’d been stabbed because there was so much blood.”
These is how Lois Henderson describes the moment she was pinned down, repeatedly savaged with a 12-inch long kitchen knife and had her scalp cut into aged just 17.
The now 24-year-old from Lancaster became yet another young victim of knife crime when jealous former school mate Anna Dickinson entered the house she was staying in to carry out a brutal premeditated attack.
Yet Anna, who was 18 at the time, was given only 32 months in prison, and let out in half that time.
Worse still, Lois had no idea that her attacker – who had targeted her in a row over dating her ex Tyrone Baines – had been released.
Instead, she found out for herself when she saw her out and about in town, going about her life as if nothing had happened.
Now, six years on, Lois is speaking out for the first time amid the knife crime crisis currently gripping the country.
But her story also offers a unique window into the scourge of soft justice that leaves victims like her feeling as if their attackers have received nothing more than “a slap on the wrist” – and leaves the public fearful that future attacks won’t be deterred.
“I feel anger. I didn’t even feel like the victim, in a way, because of the lack of support, and how much more attention she was getting than I was,” she said.
“I just feel completely screwed over. I do not feel like justice was served.”
Tragically, Lois’ story is far from unique these days.
Offences involving a knife increased by a shocking 80 per cent in the last ten years. And every week, four people in the UK die from stab wounds.
This year alone has already witnessed a string of horrific knife attacks against – and carried out by – teenagers.
Earlier this month, 15-year old Harvey Willgoose was stabbed to death by someone the same age at his school in Sheffield.
And just last month, 12-year old Leo Ross was murdered while walking through a Birmingham park.
But both these incidents are just the tip of the iceberg.
A shocking 509 children under the age of 17 were hospitalised for injuries from knives and other sharp items between April 2023 and April 2024, according to the Youth Endowment Fund.
I was kicking my legs, and trying to protect my face, because that was all I could do
Lois
For Lois, February 19, 2018, is a date that will forever be burned into her memory.
She was round the house of her friend Tyrone when the pair were disturbed by a commotion downstairs at 2am.
Outside was jealous college student Anna, and two of her friends – one of whom brandished a replica firearm to gain access to the home.
Seconds later, Lois saw Anna on the landing, headed straight for her room and gripping on to a 12-inch long kitchen knife.
Anna launched herself towards Lois in a frenzy, stabbing her across her body five times and using a key to cut into her scalp.
Pinned down by Anna’s friend, Lois could only use her legs in vain to defend herself.
The attack came to an end when the friend shouted to Anna: “I didn’t know you were gonna stab her.”
‘I thought I was going to die’
Lois was left with a punctured lung, wounded in her shoulder and was only inches away having a critical artery severed.
“I just thought I was going to die,” she said.
“I was kicking my legs, and trying to protect my face, because that was all I could do.
“I blacked out for part of the time she was stabbing me.
“After, I could see stab wounds on myself where I was hanging open and I could actually see bubbles, like my fat.”
While her attacker was not a repeat offender, Lois was still shocked at the short sentence of 32 months she was handed.
“I was expecting multiple years, because in my eyes, it was attempted murder,” she explained.
“And even though the police knew it was a premeditated attack, she actually only ended up eventually being sentenced to wounding with intent.”
Anna was released half-way through her sentence, serving only 16 months for carrying out the savage attack that Lois was lucky to survive.
I don’t understand how a sentence like that is going to deter people from these sorts of crimes
Lois
But Lois was never told that her attacker had been released – and only found out when she saw her out in the town centre, causing her to suffer a panic attack.
Such was the anxiety Lois felt that three years ago she moved from Lancaster to Cornwall, where she now lives with her partner and two young children.
“I never felt safe knowing that she was around,” she said.
“To say that I didn’t feel safe in my home town, it’s just not right at all. I was the victim, not her.
“For me to still be walking around, looking over my shoulder all the time, it was scary. Her life just goes on.”
Let off lightly
Lois’s experience of feeling abandoned by the justice system is one repeated up and down the country.
In September this year, more than 1,700 prisoners in England and Wales were released early in order to ease overcrowding in prisons.
Yet despite domestic abusers and sex offenders being among those let back out onto the streets, dozens of victims were given no warning that they were released.
Given the brutal impact of the attack, it is little surprise Lois feels both anger and confusion at the short sentence her attacker received.
“One of the things that angers me the most to this day, is that I feel like she got away with it almost, to be honest,” she said.
“I was glad that she was being given some form of punishment, but I still didn’t feel like she was suffering for what she’d done. I still felt like she’d got away with it – like she got a slap on the wrist.
“It’s one of the things that gets me down the most. I don’t understand how a sentence like that is going to deter people from these sorts of crimes.”
In the aftermath of the attack, Lois was left feeling scared and vulnerable, and still fights anxiety and PTSD to this day as a result.
But she didn’t hear back from the police once after Anna was sentenced.
“It’s something you see on the news and stuff, but you never actually expect it to happen to you,” she said.
“It’s been six years since it happened, but it takes up a massive part of my brain.
“I would have really liked to receive some form of ongoing support. But there was nothing whatsoever.
“I’ll wake up in the night from a bad dream and feel like I was being pinned down and feel like it was happening again. My body is just on red alert all the time,” she added.
“My physical scars head over time, but the mental ones, I don’t think they will ever go away.”