“Bright” and “fun-filled” Twenty years ago today, a 23-year-old Sheffield party girl had her life stolen from her when a woman fatally stabbed her outside a nightclub.
In Sheffield’s city centre, “fun-loving” Helen Hay spent her last hours partying with coworkers from the Power League football centre while saying goodbye to a colleague who was departing the site.
When Helen attempted to break up an altercation Louise Giles was having with other women outside the Flares nightclub on Carver Street, she accidentally ran into her 20-year-old killer.
Giles subseqently turned turned her attentions to Helen – ignoring the fact she was trying to act as a peace-maker – and stabbed her seven times in the back and chest.
Tragically, Woodseats resident Helen was unable to be saved and died in the early hours of Thursday, July 8, 2004.
In a heartfelt statement, Helen’s friends said after her passing, “It is still very difficult to understand how this wonderful evening could have ended in such a tragic way.”
“At twenty-three, Helen was a vibrant, fun-loving lady who was relishing her youth. She deserved the chance to live her life in the colourful way that so many others around her were inspired by; she had everything to live for.
“She is deeply missed by all her friends. The void left by losing such a sparkling person from all our lives can never be filled, but we feel exceptionally fortunate and blessed to have known her for the little time she had.” Jurors found Giles unanimously guilty of murder at the conclusion of a Sheffield Crown Court trial in May 2005, and she was jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 14 years.
It later emerged in newspaper reports that Giles had exchanged ‘steamy’ letters with Soham killer, Ian Huntley.
Giles had a history of violence and self harm and claimed to hear voices in her head. But a number of psychiatrists believed Giles was mimicking the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia to have the murder charge reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Passing sentence in May 2005, Judge Alan Goldsack QC, who held the role of Recorder of Sheffield at the time, said: “Your victim was not known to you. She had done nothing to you, and you gave her no chance.
“Since then you have been trying to evade full responsibility for your actions. First you denied having the knife.
“Then, when you realised the evidence was against you, you raised a medical defence. You have been displaying aggressive personality traits since becoming a teenager. You have taken overdoses and have been admitted to hospital.
“This, in my judgement, is part of a process of attention seeking.”
Remarkably, Giles was discovered dead by hanging in her cell at HMP Durham in August 2005, only three months later.
In December 2007, the jury at the Chester-le-Street Magistrates’ Court in County Durham, during an inquest into Giles’ death, rendered a finding of accidental death.
Concerns were voiced over Giles’ treatment at the prison and the overall condition of the facility, as well as the fact that her emotional suffering in the final days before her death was “overlooked.”
