Terrified teen in shock after knifing

Krystal Abey before the incident.

Relevant offers

A teenage model is living in fear after her knife-wielding ex-boyfriend, who left her with severe stab wounds to the stomach, wrist and thumb, was found not guilty of attempted murder.

Krystal Abey, 19, was slashed three times with the diving knife she had given boyfriend Cyril Champ MacDonald for his 21st birthday. She accused him of trying to kill her, but he testified during his trial last month that her injuries were accidental, and were sustained as she struggled to stop him cutting himself.

Abey's father Dirk Leenders has told the Sunday Star-Times of his shock and frustration that MacDonald was acquitted by a jury at the High Court at Hamilton, and of his anger at the price his daughter has had to pay.

MacDonald was also found not guilty of a second charge of wounding with intent to cause bodily harm.

Leenders believes justice has not been served and the verdict is a failure of the justice system.

The Crown alleged MacDonald lured Abey to his Hamilton home on October 31 last year on the pretence of fixing her car, which he had damaged in a temper over the break-up of their three-and-a-half-year relationship. He was accused of then attacking her with a knife in a murder-suicide attempt.

But defence counsel Thomas Sutcliffe said the injuries occurred as Abey struggled to stop MacDonald cutting his own wrist.

During the trial, MacDonald told the court he wanted "to take my own life in front of her to show her how much I had been hurt" but never intended to hurt her. According to the Waikato Times, he told jurors: "After she said that we can't be together, that's when I knelt down in front of her and cut my right wrist."

He said as he tried to slash his other wrist Abey intervened and was accidentally cut, and the other wounds occurred as the pair struggled for the knife.

Abey, now a second-year communications studies student, spent more than seven hours in surgery following the attack. Her thumb required a skin graft from her thigh and has not regained full movement or feeling a year later.

"The doctor said she was very, very lucky – the knife punctured her stomach right through about 4 or 5cm and they were really surprised there was no internal damage to her organs," says Leenders.

He says his daughter has been left with a disfiguring skin graft the size of a golf ball. "[For] a 19-year-old in the prime of her life, it's very important how you look. She used to model – she was in Shortland Street once. It's devastating."

Abey has not modelled since the attack, and doctors have advised her not to return to her part-time work waitressing. She is receiving ACC.

Crown lawyer Peter Gorringe says he received medical advice the wounds to Abey's stomach were unlikely to have happened by accident.

And Leenders believes if police had collected more evidence proving that Abey had escaped through a window, they could have built a stronger case.

But Hamilton Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Page, who wasn't directly involved in the case, said the greatest hurdle faced by the prosecution was that MacDonald exercised his right to silence during the police investigation. He says the first the police heard of MacDonald's claims that the stabbing had been "accidental" was when the trial began.

Before the trial, police considered reducing the charges to one of grievous bodily harm but Abey refused the offer.

"Krystal said `grievous bodily harm – that's not what happened. He tried to kill me. I want him to go to court for the attempted murder charge and everybody to know what he really tried to do'."

Now Leenders wonders if it might have been better for his daughter to have accepted the lesser charge.

"I think if the jury knew he was [prepared] to admit to grievous bodily harm, he would be in jail."

Leenders says his family is devastated by the verdict and their daughter remains terrified of MacDonald.

"We've been looking forward to [the trial] this whole year and it was devastating, to be honest."

MacDonald did not respond to attempts to seek comment.