The nurse said while her sight has come back she now feels fearful when in work
15:58, 15 Jan 2026
A mental health nurse at a psychiatric care unit was stabbed by a patient who had schizophrenia. The nurse said she now felt fearful when in work and had been left with two scars.
Alexander Horton, 34, was a patient at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend and had only been at the hospital for three days when he attacked his victim at around 11.55pm on October 30, 2024, in an unprovoked incident.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday heard the nurse was making her nightly checks when the defendant came out of his bedroom and calmly asked her for help. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here.
But upon approaching Horton the nurse was grabbed and placed in a headlock before he started striking her in the face with a pen which had been sharpened.
The nurse said she felt the pen pierce her left eyebrow and could feel her face was wet with blood. The assault lasted around eight seconds before the defendant was restrained by members of staff and the nurse was taken to A&E.
She suffered two lacerations to her left eyebrow and one to the side of her left eyebrow. A pen was later recovered and the tube was broken and saturated at the top.
Following his arrest Horton asked for valium and said he felt as if the "world was coming to an end" and "trapped". He said he had not taken his medication that day and something inside him "snapped", but he later felt "horrible" and regretted what he had done.
Horton, of Llanarth Road, Llanarth, Monmouthshire, later pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and a section 18 wounding. The court heard he had no previous convictions.
In a victim personal statement read to the court the nurse said: "I felt fear each time I entered the ward, not knowing whether he was going to attack me again or if he had another assault planned against me.
"Since the attack I am even more so acutely aware of my surroundings, especially in the presence of male patients in case I could be assaulted in some way again.
"It has left me with two scars, one to my eyebrow and another to my temple. The cuts are healing but I'm conscious the scars are still there.
"People will ask me about the scars and I have to explain what happened and relive the incident and become upset. The incident has become part of my life I am struggling to forget about.
"I'm lucky the pen didn't puncture my eyeball. My sight did come back but it left me feeling shaken up."
In mitigation the court heard Horton had not been involved in any further incidents while in psychiatric care and there was nothing prior to the attack which suggested he was prone to violence.
Sentencing, Judge Paul Hobson said: "(The victim) was someone who was simply doing her job, trying to care for and help you. What you did and the injury you caused has had a profound effect upon her."
Horton was made subject to a hospital order under section 37 of the Mental Health Act.
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