Andrea Madden was jailed for seven years after stabbing boyfriend Royce Ali

by Thom Morris

A father-of-two has spoken of his horror after his girlfriend of
four years repeatedly stabbed him - in a row over diet pills.

Royce Ali, 45, (pictured below) was drying the dishes when
29-year-old Andrea Madden stabbed him in a frenzied attack at his
home in Allens Mead, Gravesend.

Mr Ali told Maidstone Crown Court violence
erupted when Madden complained that he had thrown away her slimming
pills.

The security engineer said: "She'd had an argument with my son
about the washing up and had gone upstairs. I went up to see her
and she said it was over between us so I said 'if that's the case,
why don't you leave?'

"My son and daughter went out and within about five minutes she
came back downstairs screaming and I told her to get out.

"She took a knife from the block (pictured below) and just
began stabbing me. I couldn't believe what she was doing. I didn't
even know I'd been stabbed until I looked down and saw it.

"I was struggling with her, trying to get the knife, and she ran
off and got the house phone.

"I said 'what have you done? Call an ambulance' and then I heard
her calling the police saying 'help me, help me, I've been
attacked'."

The couple had been together for four years and Mr Ali says he
had supported Madden through difficulties.

Most of the time they were happy, but her own personal
difficulties and problems with previous relationships had made her
depressed, he said.

Mr Ali had thrown away her diet pills because "she started
showing signs of getting withdrawn".

He added: "I was her support and always there for her. She was
sectioned twice and I was down at the hospital every day.

"She would often go off into her own world. I told her she
needed to get some counselling and talk to people about it, but she
always refused."

Madden was jailed for seven years when she appeared at Maidstone
Crown Court last week.

The jury heard how she grabbed the knife in Mr Ali’s kitchen and
plunged it into his arm and chest on January 29.

Despite denying the charge of wounding with intent, she was
convicted by a jury.

She is expected to serve two-thirds of her sentence - less 182
days already spent in custody on remand.

Mr Ali added: "The biggest thing that hurts the most is that
this ever happened at all.

"I couldn't believe she would stab me and then not admit it. I
was always there for her and she just made up lies about me.

"Being in court and hearing her lawyer saying what she said I'd
done was soul destroying.

"I'm just hoping that while she's in jail she gets the support
and help she needs.

"It's no use just sending her to jail because she could just
come out and do it again."