A man has admitted attempted murder after a woman was stabbed in York.
Jake Joe Bamber, 35, appeared at Leeds Crown Court last week when he admitted four charges including attempted murder, carrying a knife, using controlling and coercive behaviour against the woman and stalking her.
YorkMix couldn’t report his guilty pleas at the time so as not to prejudice a possible trial on two further allegations which Bamber denied.
Bamber pleaded not guilty to intentional suffocation and assaulting the woman causing actual bodily harm, which meant there was still potential for a trial on those denied matters.
But yesterday (Wednesday), the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Bamber’s not guilty pleas to the suffocation and ABH charges were acceptable and that there would be no need for a trial.
Bamber, of Apollo Street, off Heslington Road, will now be sentenced in April on the four matters he has admitted.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to murder the named woman – with whom he was closely connected – at a property on Lindley Road, Clifton.
The woman, who is in her 20s, suffered serious injuries in the incident at about 5.50pm on 10 January.
Bamber also admitted carrying a knife in a public place, namely Lindley Road and Whitley Close in Clifton.
He denied suffocating the woman in a separate alleged incident last year. The prosecution had alleged that Bamber suffocated her by repeatedly holding her head under water, making it difficult for her to breathe, but the Crown now accepts his denial that this happened.
The alleged assault occasioning actual bodily harm was said to have occurred on 25 November last year, but Bamber denied this and the prosecution ultimately accepted his plea.
He admitted using controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship, which occurred between 23 July and 30 November last year, in that he damaged the woman’s bathroom door and a TV, assaulted her by hitting her head “off a mirror” and “hitting her head off a wall”, and caused her to fear on at least two occasions that violence would be used against her.
He also admitted stalking the woman, which occurred between 29 November and 11 January 2025 and caused her “serious alarm or distress” and affected her day-to-day activities.
At Leeds Crown Court on 18 February, prosecutor Angus MacDonald said the Crown would probably accept Bamber’s not-guilty pleas but asked for seven days to confer with prosecutorial colleagues and other parties before making a final decision.
Judge Guy Kearl KC, the Recorder of Leeds, adjourned sentence to 8 April and remanded Bamber in custody until then.
