A hysterical mother screamed ‘he was going to hurt me’ moments after stabbing her private school graduate son in the head, a Sydney court has heard.
Samantha Palmer, 55, has pleaded guilty to reckless wounding over the November 20 incident last year in which she armed herself with a butcher knife.
The evening began with her and husband James Tilley calmly relaxing with a drink on their verandah but would later spin wildly out of control, court documents state.
Samantha Palmer, 55, was arrested in a black summer dress and pearl earrings (pictured) after the November 20 incident
Ms Palmer has since plead guilty reckless wounding with the court hearing she told officer Mr Ball was ‘threatening her’
Her son Hugo Ball, 23, had moved back into their Bellevue Hill property three weeks earlier and had been out at a friend’s birthday party at Watson’s Bay Hotel.
Palmer’s daughter and Mr Ball’s sister Daphne Palmer-Ball arrived home about 10pm and went to her room.
Mr Tilley then went to bed about half-an-hour later leaving Palmer alone out the front, court documents state.
About midnight Mr Ball arrived and spoke to his mother at the front of the house, court documents state.
The agreed facts state at about 1.30am Ms Palmer-Ball and Mr Tilley woke up to the sound of Mr Ball screaming as Palmer repeatedly stabbed him.
Mr Tilley used a tea towel on Mr Ball’s wound and called triple-zero as Ms Palmer-Ball bundled her mother into a separate room, documents state.
Ball (pictured) pleaded guilty to malicious damage at a Sydney court in February after he turned up to his father’s $5.5million Paddington terrace and destroyed part of his plantation shutters
The family’s multi-level mansion in Bellevue Hill – a ritzy suburb in Sydney’s east – was allgedly marred with bloodshed on Saturday
Palmer repeatedly told her ‘he’s threatened me, he was going to hurt me,’ the court was told.
‘You’ve got just as many issues as he does … you just stabbed Hugo,’ she replied.
Police arrived shortly after finding Mr Ball at the front door still bleeding profusely from a wound on his right shoulder and a 21cm blade on the verandah nearby.
Palmer repeated the self defence plea to officers, telling them: ‘He’s threatening me, he’s hurt people, he’s going to hurt me’, the court heard.
When escorted to the police station, officers couldn’t see any obvious physical injuries to Palmer.
Mr Ball was treated at hospital for stab wounds to his neck and shoulder.
Ms Palmer (centre) is arrested by police as Mr Ball was treated in hospital
Mr Ball has also been to in trouble with police twice since the November 20 attack.
In the following weeks, while suffering drug withdrawals, Ball went on a rampage at his father’s house in late December.
He plead guilty to malicious damage at a Sydney court in February.
He had turned up to his father’s $5.5million Paddington terrace and destroyed part of his plantation shutters.
Court documents said the attack unfolded after the Scots graduate’s dad, the former Cardno CEO Ian Ball, rang Hugo’s doctor on Boxing Day to report that his son had been drinking.
Ball’s mother Samantha (top left) is accused of stabbing her son with a 12 inch kitchen knife in November (pictured with Mr Ball and his biological father Ian Ball)
Mr Ball is pictured on a mate’s shoulders at a music festival in 2017, above. A court heard he had drug issues after graduating from Sydney’s prestigious Scots College
Ball wasn’t allowed to drink when taking diazepam medication, better known as Valium. When Hugo went to the doctor the next day for a prescription, he was refused the drug.
Wrongly under the impression his father had leftover medication at his house, Ball then turned up out the front of his dad’s home on the morning of December 27, the documents said.
‘The accused began aggressively banging and shouting at the front door,’ an agreed fact sheet tendered in court said.
‘The accused went up to the shutters… and has damaged several of these which caused them to snap off and has rendered them unfit for purpose.’
As part of his plea, police withdrew initial claims of a more extensive rampage that officers had made in court documents late last year.
Months later he was arrested by Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command in a Paddington unit at about 2.30pm on Tuesday, following an investigation into an alleged act of stealing at Bondi Junction on April 17.
He was taken to Waverley Police Station where he was charged with stealing from person.
Ian Ball (pictured) previously told Downing Centre Local Court that his relationship with his son was ‘generally, good’
Source: Daily Mail
