Nan Lyndsey Goulding told police ‘I should have killed him’
A drug dealing nan launched a table at her ex-boyfriend’s head then told the police “I should have killed him”. Lyndsey Goulding whacked her victim with the item of furniture “because she’d had enough of him”.
It came a matter of months after she had been caught red handed flogging heroin and crack cocaine on the streets at a time when he had apparently “left her with nothing”. She then subjected him to an “unhappy opportunistic attack” as he lay defenceless on the floor, having been assaulted by his brother amid a heated row over a SIM card.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday afternoon, Monday, that officers in an unmarked car spotted a group of suspected drug users at the junction of St Anne Way and Cathcart Street in Birkenhead on November 29 last year, with Goulding believed to have been “in the process of supplying drugs”. The 50-year-old was then searched and found to be in possession of 13 wraps of heroin and seven of crack cocaine, class A substances worth a combined £200.
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Cheryl Mottram, prosecuting, described how she was subsequently released before a further incident on July 1 this year. Goulding was said to have previously been in a “volatile” relationship with Stephen Paul for around six years, with the police being called out to domestic incidents by both parties on numerous occasions previously.
In the early hours of the day in question, she was at the flat of his brother Simon Paul on Price Street in Birkenhead when her former partner entered and began rowing with his sibling over a missing SIM card. When he refused to leave the address, he was pushed to the floor and punched by his relative and another man who was present at the scene and named only as Rob.
As he was picking himself up from the ground, Goulding then took hold of a wooden table and hit him across the back of the head. She then followed Mr Paul as he left the apartment as she “wanted to check his head” before he called the police from a nearby phone box.
After returning to the property, the mum-of-three and grandma provided him with “assistance” to his injuries before he was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital at around 4.30am. Goulding was subsequently arrested and taken to custody, where she remarked “I should have killed him” as she was booked in.
However, under interview, she told detectives that she “didn’t intend to kill him” and had attacked him “because she’d had enough of him and his behaviour”. She recalled that Mr Paul had entered the apartment through the window before “becoming violent and hitting his brother”, stating that she “hit him with the table leg to get him off”.
Neither his brother nor “Rob” were charged with any offences in relation to the altercation. Goulding has 21 previous convictions for 45 offences, but none for violent offences or drug trafficking and no brushes with the law since 2019.
Desmond Lennon, defending, told the court: “She, unhappily, has had a long standing addiction to class A controlled drugs since she was 18 years of age. Her childhood and family circumstances make for very sad reading. That has had a massive adverse impact on every aspect of her life – both as a child, in terms of her being a victim of unpleasant circumstances as an adult and by her addiction to drugs which she has been using for 32 years now as a means of coping with problems she has faced in the past.
“She bought the drugs for her own use but decided to sell them as her former partner stole her money. She had no money. She had sold one bag for £10 at that particular juncture.
“The relationship with her and Stephen Paul was horrendous. He stole her money and left her with nothing. The only thing she had was the 20 wraps.
“She has been the victim of violence by him. She describes a history of physical and emotional abuse by him, describing the abuse by him as horrendous.
“She accepts that there is no excuse for what happened in July. He had gone into the flat in an aggressive way, fighting with his brother. It was perhaps an unhappy, opportunistic attack on a man who had been deeply unpleasant towards her in the past.
“She has made real progress while in Styal and has viewed prison as a form of rehabilitation. She has been offered drugs while she has been in custody, but she has not taken any.
“She has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, anxiety and depression. Her mental health has improved. Her physical health has improved significantly. She has passed basic maths and English courses. She has been working in the kitchen.
“She has sought to use her time constructively and meaningfully and, in many ways, she has done quite well. She is determined to make substantial changes to her lifestyle. To live with her daughter and look after her grandchildren would be a positive start for her, and to get assistance would be valuable and useful for her to undertake.”
Goulding admitted unlawful wounding and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply. She nodded as she was jailed for 32 months before waving to a woman in the public gallery while being led down to the cells.
Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: “I accept that he had been, in the past, abusive towards you, and that he was acting in a threatening and aggressive way generally, albeit not towards you, on this occasion. He was taken to the floor by two men and assaulted.
“To put it bluntly, they were taking care of the situation and there was no need for you to get involved. But you did. You took hold of a wooden table and cracked him over the head with it and caused quite a nasty injury.
“You have had a difficult life. You had a difficult childhood and you have had a difficult adult life, partly as a result of your drug addiction and partly as a result of abusive relationships which you have been involved in.
“If you continue to make the progress you seem to have been making in custody and take the support offered, there is every prospect that you will be able to turn your life around. If you go back to your old ways, you will end up in prison.”
