‘Poor Rebekah might still be alive today’ if Ormandy hadn’t been on the scene
A killer was named as a suspect in brutal assault mere months before he murdered his girlfriend in a violent attack. Michael Ormandy and his co-defendant left a man with a fractured skull around six months before 34-year-old Ormandy stabbed Rebekah Campbell to death.
Now, a woman who spoke to the Liverpool Echo about the tragic case has said “poor Rebekah might still be alive today” if Ormandy hadn’t been on the scene. Rebekah was 32 when she died after being knifed 27 times inside her own flat at Knowsley Heights in Huyton in April this year.
Boyfriend Ormandy claimed to have acted in self-defence during the incident, despite suffering only a single cut to his hand during the altercation, requiring only minor treatment in hospital as a result. Rebekah was meanwhile left covered in blood as she collapsed outside the block of flats, having suffered 18 stab wounds and been slashed a further nine times with a knife, reports the Liverpool Echo.
She was said to have pleaded “get out, go away Mick” as he burst into her home unannounced in a bulletproof vest and brutally attacked her, before asking police officers who rushed to the scene “am I gonna die?” as they fought in vain to save her life. Only three days earlier, “jealous and possessive” Ormandy had left his partner with a black eye after punching her during another night out in Liverpool city centre.
The self-confessed drug dealer then had sex with another woman at a hotel and told her that he was “going to Liverpool to sort something out” a matter of hours before the fatal stabbing. The former boxer and cage fighter, who bears a tattoo of the words “The Hitman” across the front of his neck, then called the police in the early hours and claimed to have a “suicide vest” while threatening to “blow everyone up”. Following his arrest, he went on to remark that his victim “must have stabbed herself”.
But Ormandy was unanimously found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years behind bars. Having smiled, clapped and shouted “come on, cloud nine, I know where yous all live you daft c***s” in response to cheers from his victim’s family when he was convicted, he went on to shout “you little tramp, you little rat” after some in the public gallery remarked “you little nonce” and “s***house” as he was sentenced.
Ormandy, of Linacre Road in Litherland, appeared back before the same court last week charged with wounding with intent in June of this year, relating to an incident in the city centre on October 25 2024. This reportedly saw a 30-year-old man, Jordan Kane, attacked by two men, having been knocked to the floor after he was punched before being kicked on the ground.
It is understood that Ormandy was responsible for the initial blow upon the man, who is believed to be a former friend of the murderer-to-be, before his accomplice delivered the kick. Mr Kane was subsequently found injured by members of the public who called 999, with doctors later finding that he had suffered a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain.
Appearing via video link from prison wearing a black Montirex t-shirt and sporting a shaved head, he pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of unlawful wounding. His 41-year-old co-defendant Wesley Evans, of Beatrice Street in Bootle, also admitted the same offence, with both now due to be sentenced on January 12 next year.
The assault on Mr Kane was previously the subject of a Merseyside Police CCTV appeal, which was issued by the force on December 17 2024. The Liverpool Echo reports that it has seen evidence that a person known to Ormandy recognised him in stills of the incident which were circulated at this time and reported him as being the culprit two days later on December 19.
But he and Evans, who was also named by the same woman, were only ultimately charged in relation to the incident on April 28 this year, 13 days after Ms Campbell was stabbed to death. She told the ECHO: “I immediately reported it was Michael Ormandy and his friend, but, as far as I’m aware, nothing happened. He has then gone on to kill Rebekah.
“He should have been back in jail a long time ago. Maybe poor Rebekah might still be alive today if the police had done their jobs properly. I know it won’t bring her back, but someone should be held accountable for him being free and able to murder a beautiful girl.
“My mind boggles at how he was allowed to do this to Rebekah and was free to do what he wanted with this seriously long and dangerous history on his criminal record. I firmly believe the police and other services have failed Rebekah and her family and friends.”
However, Merseyside Police told the ECHO that its investigation into the assault “progressed diligently and within the timescales expected for a serious assault”. In a statement, Detective Superintendent Ben Dyer said: “We received a report of a serious assault in Liverpool city centre on Friday, October 25 2024, and this was thoroughly investigated.
“Two men have now pleaded guilty due to the overwhelming evidence we were able to produce that showed their involvement in the incident. We take all reports of assault extremely seriously, and such acts of violence will never be tolerated anywhere in Merseyside.
“When the report was first made, enquiries were carried out to locate the suspects. As part of these ongoing enquiries, a CCTV appeal was circulated on Tuesday, December 17 2024, showing two men we wanted to speak to about the incident.
“This led to information provided by members of the public, and Michael Ormandy attended a voluntary interview on Thursday, January 2 2025. A file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision on Friday, February 14, and, following ongoing enquiries to gather evidence, he was charged on Monday, April 28.
“From the outset, the investigation was progressed diligently and within the timescales we would expect for a serious assault, which has resulted in two men admitting their involvement. Ormandy is clearly an extremely dangerous offender, and he is now in prison, where he belongs and will remain for a significant period of time. Our thoughts remain with the family of Rebekah Campbell as they continue to grieve their loss.”
David McLachlan KC, appearing for the prosecution during the murder trial, previously told the court that Ms Campbell was home at her flat at around 10.30pm on April 15, 2025 when Ormandy attended her address. Faye Henderson, who was speaking to the deceased on the phone at the same time, reported that her friend shouted “go away, get out Mick” before she heard a “loud bang” and the sound of puppies barking, at which stage the line “went quiet”.
Ormandy was then captured on CCTV leaving the building again as Ms Campbell exited her apartment shouting “I’ve been stabbed”. Having collapsed outside, she then told neighbours who rushed to her aid: “My fella stabbed me.”
While later being transported to Aintree Hospital in an ambulance, Ms Campbell asked emergency service workers “am I gonna die?” Although one police officer reassured her that she was “hurt but in the best place”, she was ultimately pronounced dead in the early hours of April 16.
The incident was said to have come against the backdrop of a relationship which “wasn’t going well”, with Ms Campbell being apparently “ready to end it”. It followed an altercation on the evening of April 12, when she was said to have thrown a shoe at her boyfriend and slapped him while they were out drinking at Revolver bar on Mathew Street.
A second “heated incident” then erupted between the two later the same night at Beer Engine on Hardman Street, with the deceased seen “kicking out” at Ormandy before he struck her to the face outside. She was reportedly left in tears after falling to the floor and suffering a black eye as a result of this blow, even remarking that she had been left “looking like the Elephant Man”.
In the afternoon before the murder, Ormandy then booked a stay at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport and had sex with another woman. He was said to have told this witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that he was “going to Liverpool to sort something out” as he later left for the evening.
Within two hours of the stabbing, Ormandy went on to call police and stated: “The police are at my flat now. If they touch my dogs, I’m going to start killing police officers, one by one. I’m going to start shooting if anything happens to my dogs. My dogs are my babies.
“I promise on my kid’s life. I’ve got a suicide vest and I’ll blow everyone up. I’ve got nothing to lose now. Yous couldn’t do your f***ing job, now look what happens. I’m the bad guy because of the world we live in. It’s a f***ing joke.
“I’m gonna blow myself up. I’m gonna blow everyone up if anyone goes near my f***ing dogs. I’ve got a suicide vest on. I’m going to kill everyone. I promise, I will kill yous all. My dogs are my babies. I will kill for them.”
Following his arrest on a canal towpath by armed officers, Ormandy remarked that “this wouldn’t have happened if you did your job last week”. His mobile phone was subsequently recovered from the water after he apparently “tried to ditch” the device.
Having been told at this stage that Ms Campbell had been stabbed an estimated 20 times, Ormandy replied: “20 times? There’s no way. She must have stabbed herself. As soon as I walked in, she started attacking me. She had the knife ready. She can’t have been stabbed 20 times. No, that’s not even possible.”
But a Home Office post mortem investigation subsequently revealed that Ms Campbell had indeed sustained a total of 27 “incised wounds” during a “sustained, violent assault”, comprising of 18 stab wounds and nine slash wounds which were “concentrated on the left side of the body”. A pathologist found that this was “in keeping with the use of severe force”, with injuries on her left arm also said to be “indicative of defence injuries as she tried to fend off an attack”.
In his evidence, Ormandy said of his attendance at Ms Campell’s flat: “We had a brief argument. I was saying, ‘look are we in a relationship or not, I need to know’. Obviously, I had alternative plans if she said no. We just ended up in an argument. I just said ‘I’m not a***d, I’ll go back and f*** the bird I’ve just been f***ing’. I think she thought I was lying.
“Sometimes, with my ADHD, I don’t think before I speak. I was like, s***, what have I just said? I went back round, went back in. She was standing by the breakfast bar. I was just saying, ‘look, I was only messing, I didn’t mean it’. Literally, within, I’d say about 15, 20 seconds, she just lunged at me.
“She picked [the knife] up and just turned and come at me in a downward motion. I grabbed the knife with my right hand. With the momentum of her coming towards me, I’ve fell back over the puppies and landed in the middle of the floor.
“[The knife] basically come loose as we landed. We’re both just scrambling for the knife. I managed to get the knife first, I think. She was trying to get it still. I remember hitting her once. I think I stabbed her. I was fighting for my life, do you know what I mean? I didn’t realise I had the knife. I was in a fight or flight situation. I thought the knife had come loose again.
“When you’re fighting for your life, it just goes blank. I still can’t remember being in there that long to this day. She was attacking me. I didn’t realise I was stabbing her. I thought I was just punching her.
“I didn’t intend to lay a finger on her. I just wanted to know whether we were in a relationship or not. I already had something lined up, in case it weren’t. It’s s***, it’s horrible, but it’s the truth.
“I replay that s*** every night in my head. It goes over and over in my head every single night what’s happened, trying to think, if any slight things were different, it could have changed. Maybe if I’d let her stab me in the neck or throat, I would have survived and we wouldn’t be in this situation. It’s s*** and it’s horrible, but the facts are, if Rebekah didn’t attack me with the knife, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
