Back in November 2016, Angela Jay, a young doctor from NSW, was stabbed 11 times and doused in petrol by a man she’d met on Tinder.
Paul Lambert, 36, broke into the 28-year-old’s Port Macquarie home and set upon her with a knife.
Angela dated her attacker for around six weeks but noted his behaviour became “possessive and controlling” so she broke it off.
Lambert didn’t take the rejection well and threatened Dr Jay, prompting her to take out an Apprehended Violence Order against him.
“Your (sic) not safe in that house. I have some of the house keys,” he texted her, according to court documents submitted when she applied for the AVO.
“I need you to understand this is my good side right now. The good side won’t last long. Especially being rejected.”
He broke into Dr Jay’s home where he had set the scene for an elaborate sick rape fantasy that police believed he wanted to end by murdering her and burning down the house.
Lambert hid in a walk-in cupboard before attacking Dr Jay but neighbours heard her screams and she managed to run out of the house.
Three months on, Angela has told the Daily Telegraph she thought she was going to bleed to death.
“I looked down at my legs and saw stab wounds and thought, ‘My God, he’s going to kill me, I’m going to bleed to death’,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
She described her escape to her neighbours’ home where she instructed them to apply first aid to her stab wounds until paramedics arrived.
“I put pressure on my leg using my hand, all the time thinking, ‘I need to get out of here.’
“He caught me again and started pouring petrol over me, there was terror now and that gave me extra strength to run,” she said.
“It was the worst day of my life,” Dr Jay told the paper. “I’m glad he’s dead. I cried tears of relief when the police told me.”
In September, Dr Jay will support White Ribbon’s 65km fundraising Trek For Respect along the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory.
Angela’s fundraising for White Ribbon
Her fundraising page reads:
“On the 3rd of November 2016, after a brief relationship ended, I was almost murdered in my own home. Many women are not lucky enough to escape–approximately one woman a week in Australia is killed by a current or ex-partner. As a doctor working in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I have also witnessed the sad truth that rates of domestic violence actually increase during pregnancy.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual or domestic abuse, don’t suffer in silence, call 1800 RESPECT 24 hours a day
