Former pub landlord admits knife attack on ex-girlfriend and her partner

Nov 12 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A FORMER Quayside landlord yesterday admitted a knife attack on two international students.

Polish student Magda Tychmann, 25, underwent emergency surgery on a severed artery when her ex-boyfriend Graham Mitchell stabbed her in the neck early on July 5 this year as she slept with her new boyfriend Jorge Carballo, 26, who suffered life threatening wounds when he was stabbed15 times with blows narrowly missing his heart and lungs.

During a previous hearing Mitchell, 45, former landlord at the Cooperage pub in Newcastle, had denied the attack, but at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday he pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder.

The court was told Mitchell had one previous conviction dating to September 2001 for assault and actual bodily harm for which he was handed a community punishment order.

The Honourable Mr Justice Wilkie adjourned the case for sentencing on December 8.

Miss Tychmann and Mr Carballo were asleep in his city centre flat in Bewick House, opposite Newcastle Central Station, when they were attacked by Mitchell

She was stabbed in the neck before being kicked and punched in the head. Covered in blood, she ran into the street to shout for help.

Miss Tychmann moved to Newcastle to study media, culture and society at Northumbria University. She met Mitchell when she worked as a barmaid at the Cooperage pub on Newcastle Quayside, while he was landlord, and a relationship developed.

He moved into the house she shared with her family, in Wallsend, but they separated about six months before the attack.

Mitchell, formerly of Woodhead Road, in Walkergate, has been the director of several North East companies, including Unique Leisure Ltd, the business name under which he acquired the Cooperage.

But he only ran the pub for four months.

He resigned as director of Unique Leisure Ltd in 2006 and the company went into liquidation.