Three passersby who risked their own lives to wrestle a 10-inch blade from a knifeman who stabbed his pregnant girlfriend 24 times have been honoured for their incredible courage.
The horrific attack on Natalie Queiroz in a Sutton Coldfield street made global headlines. And thanks to the bravery of her three rescuers – John Mitchell, 44, Anthony Smith, 69, and 31-year-old Callum Gibson – it had an against-all-odds happy ending.
She survived and doctors performed an emergency caesarean to save the life of her baby. She, too, has also made a full recovery.
This week the three heroes received bravery awards from the region’s top police officer, Chief Constable Dave Thompson. They dragged attacker Babur Karamat Raja – later jailed for 18 years – away from his badly injured partner and prised the knife from him.
Chief Constable Thompson said: “If it wasn’t for the quick actions and bravery of members of the public who put their own lives on the line to save Natalie and her unborn daughter, this could have ended much differently and may well have been a murder investigation.
“I truly commend them for what they did that day and it was a pleasure to present them with the awards.”
Natalie, aged 41, survived because of their intervention and the swift first aid work of police officers Darren Knapper and Casandra Parry. They applied tourniquets and dressings to Natalie’s chest and stomach wounds before paramedics arrived.
They, too, received Chief Constable’s Awards. Six detectives who worked on the case were also honoured.
In an exclusive interview, Natalie, who has two other children, recalled the horrors of that day in March last year. And she praised those who came to her rescue. She said: “I want to take this opportunity to give my heartfelt thanks and pay tribute to the courageous people who came to the aid of myself and my unborn child.
“Along with the West Midlands Police officers who were at the scene, the paramedics, crew of the Midlands Air Ambulance and staff at both the Queen Elizabeth and Birmingham Women’s hospitals…without them my daughter and I would not have survived.
“They were facing a woman who was eight months pregnant who’d been stabbed 24 times.
“I was covered in blood. My right lung had collapsed completely.
“I was having difficulty breathing and I didn’t know if my baby was alive or not because I’d been stabbed in the stomach. But all of them remained calm. They were amazing. They told me it would all be OK.”
Natalie added: “I was sitting on the pavement, propped against a wall, and was drifting in and out of consciousness.
“I remember telling myself ‘I can’t die. I have to stay alive for my children’.
“You just want someone to take over but you keep fighting and fighting yourself because you know you have to keep the fight up. I remember hearing the helicopter overhead, coming in to land. I was treated first in a land ambulance then flown to Birmingham’s QE Hospital.
“A lot of what happened is hazy but I remember the air ambulance touching down, and being wheeled down a corridor, with people screaming.
“I was taken straight in to the operating theatre. The doctors later said that it was quite a miracle. Someone told me later that when I spoke to the air ambulance crew, I looked at them with big eyes like a little kid.”
“It was a look of absolute trust. They were calm, controlled and it’s thanks to them that I got to hospital so quickly.”
Natalie had stab wounds to her heart, lung, liver and uterus. There were knife wounds on her hands and wrists where she had tried to defend herself.
The court case that followed was told Natalie’s breast implants “were probably what saved her life”.
Birmingham Crown Court was told Raja carried out the terrible attack because his mother “literally drove him mad” through her disapproval of the relationship.
Jane Humphryes QC said in mitigation that Raja’s family turmoil “tipped him over the edge”, leading to a temporary mental illness or “adjustment disorder”, leaving him with little memory of what he had done.
She said: “His mother had not been happy he was in a relationship with a white woman, and told him he must leave her or she would not be in contact.”
Raja, 41, admitted attempted murder, attempted child destruction, possession of a knife in public and the wounding and assault of two passers-by.
