‘Jamie you stabbed me’: Son relives his mother’s dying words to him after he accidentally stabbed her through the heart while fighting another man over £2,000 drugs debt – as he is jailed 19 years for manslaughter
- Jamie Dempsey knifed his mother Karen Dempsey, 55, as he fought another man
- The killer fled the scene after hugging and saying ‘sorry’ to his dying mother
A mother who was accidentally stabbed through the heart by her son as he brawled with another man outside a pub told her child ‘you’re a divvy’ before she died.
Jamie Dempsey, 32, plunged the knife into the chest of Karen Dempsey, 55, as she fought to stop her son fighting Brian Flynn in Kirkby, Merseyside.
The blade punched right the way through the grandmother’s heart and out the other side, ending up 1.5 cm into her liver. She bled to death.
Being jailed today for 19 years for the killing, Dempsey told the court he regretted stabbing his mother ‘more than anything in the world’ – as he revealed her heartbreaking final words to him.
Speaking in court before being jailed, the 32-year-old killer said: ‘She just grabbed me and said “Jamie you stabbed me”. I said “mum, I’m sorry”. She said ‘you’re just a divvy lad, it would happen to you’. I gave her a hug and she said to leave. She told me to leave and get away from there.’
Karen Dempsey, 55, was fatally stabbed by her own son as she fought to stop him attacking Brian Flynn during a fight in Kirkby, Merseyside
Dempsey was cleared on Monday of murdering his mother – who was known as Merseyside’s ‘Community Champion’. But a jury at Liverpool Crown Court convicted him of manslaughter.
READ MORE: Man, 32, ‘accidentally’ stabbed his own mother, 55, to death as she tried to stop him knifing someone else in fight outside pub, murder trial hears
Jailing Dempsey, who showed no emotion, Judge Denis Watson, KC said: ‘If you had thought for a moment about your mums’ wish to stop you, you would have realised that if you took the fight to him, she would try to intervene.’
He said as he tried to stab Mr Flynn yet again, ‘it seems you were off balance, you missed him but your momentum turned 90 degrees or more and your knife plunged into your mother’s chest’.
‘I accept that you never had any intent to do harm to your mother,’ added the judge. ‘The fight and your pride was your ultimate priority and saving face was all that mattered.
‘Similarly I have no doubt that you regret killing your mother and you will do all of your life. However, your remorse stops there, as you sought to justify your actions as self defence, and claimed that you only picked up the knife for that purpose.
‘The simple fact is that your decision to bring a knife and use it caused her death.’
The court heard Mr Flynn was furious at Dempsey because he had run up an unpaid drug debt of some £2,000, said prosecutor Peter Glenser KC.
The two got into a fight that night after Mr Flynn threw a glass at Dempsey’s head. The fight then spilled from the Brambles pub, where Dempsey pulled out the knife.
Killer Jamie Dempsey, 32, plunged the knife into his mother’s chest. It sliced through her heart and ended up 1.5 cm into her liver. He has now been jailed for 19 years after being convicted of manslaughter
The killer repeatedly stabbed Mr Flynn before another man and Ms Dempsey intervened.
She had been standing between her son and his target when she was accidentally knifed.
The court had heard how Dempsey hugged his mother and fled the scene without realising the severity of her injuries.
Mr Flynn was stopped by police nearby and arrested. He was taken to hospital after suffering significant injuries including a punctured lung, with the most serious stab wound being delivered to his left armpit.
After fleeing Dempsey walked to his aunt’s house and told her there had ‘been a fight and he had stabbed his mother’. He took off his clothing and asked his cousin to burn it, although this did not happen.
He then went to an off-licence and bought cans of beer. He later phoned Merseyside Police to tell them where he was and that he was wanted, not yet knowing that he had killed his mother.
During this call, he said he had used a piece of glass and not a knife during the incident and said it was self-defence.
After learning of his mother’s death, Dempsey changed his account and said he had found a knife by the back door of the pub after the initial altercation in the pub with Mr Flynn.
The bloody brawl took place outside the Brambles pub in Merseyside on August 22 last year. Pictured are police at the scene following the fatal stabbing
The jury cleared him of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Flynn but found him guilty of the lesser charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm and also of possessing a knife.
Medics at Aintree Hospital fought to save the life of Mrs Dempsey, who collapsed shortly after the attack, but she was declared dead just over an hour after arriving there.
In an impact statement the victim’s partner Alan James Thompson said: ‘My world has changed forever. The pain is unbearable and to see the same pain in the eyes of Karen’s family and close friends is too much to bear.
‘Her zest for life was contagious, she made people smile with her optimistic spirit and always seeing the good in people.
‘I feel like a ship lost at sea with no direction. Karen was the wind that blew me along and motivated me every single day.’
Karen’s sister Lynn Dempsey added it was ‘hard to accept and comprehend’ she was dead. ‘The pain is immense when I think of how she died in such a horrendous way,’ said said.
Speaking about his mother, Dempsey said: ‘She was my rock, she was the only person in the world that’s been there all my life – my best friend to be honest with you. I loved her more than anything.’
Timothy Cray, KC, defending, said the defendant wanted to express through him his remorse.
‘He is aware not only that he has caused the death of his mother, but he has also caused almost unquantifiable grief to those that loved her, as has been movingly expressed this morning.’
After the victim’s death her family described her as ‘beautiful, vivacious and compassionate woman’.
She worked at the Kirkby Unemployed Centre helping the community and after it closed she and her sister set up their own welfare rights service. She also joined a benefit, debt and IT advice charity in Skelmersdale.
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