A hero mother sacrificed her own life to save her two-year-old child as she was stabbed and set on fire by the youngster’s jealous father, a court heard today.
Nursery worker Leanne Collopy, 25 was knifed 21 times by ex-boyfriend Saleem Said who lured her into a trap before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight. But as flames ripped across her back, the mum-of-two bravely held her daughter Leila in her arms and shielded her from both the blaze and from her 40-year-old ex-partner as he repeatedly knifed her.
Police and firefighters were called to the terrace house in Rawtenstall, Lancs, by neighbours when they heard the mum shout: “Help me! Help me! He’s stabbing me!” But by the time they got to the house, the qualified teacher had already suffered fatal wounds to her face, back chest, leg and arm plus 65% burns all over her body. She died four days later in hospital.
Leila was found soaked in her mother’s blood, sat on a kitchen worktop in shocked silence with her eyes wide open and staring. She suffered severe burns to her face, head and body and will need ongoing skin grafts. It emerged she had also been doused with water by her mother as she fought for her life. The confused girl now has physical and mental scars and suffers flashbacks of the horrific evening in which she shouts: “Mummy hot, Leila hot, daddy, daddy.”
Miss Collopy’s other child Lola, aged four, who at a sleepover at a friends house during the attack has asked relatives: “Why did my mummy have to go to heaven?” She is now living with her father away from the area. Preston Crown Court heard in the run up to the murder in July last year, care worker Said, of Stockport, had purchased metal handcuffs, duct tape and white spirit. He had then bought petrol from a garage as part of an evil plan to kill Miss Collopy’s in revenge for her dumping him.
He also carried out internet searches, including “16 steps to kill someone and not get caught”, “how to start a fire fast and furious and without fuss”, “unleaded petrol more ‘ammable?” and “how long it would take to suffocate someone?” Today he began a minimum 30 years behind bars after he admitted murder and arson with intent to endanger life. Miss Collopy’s mum Julie Doherty read a heartbreaking statement in court in which she said: “Leanne was a very proud mum with her whole life ahead of her and the emptiness we now feel will never go away. I have a longing for her to burst through the door and tell us her latest news – but I know I will never again be able to hug her, laugh with her, cry with her and even argue with her. I cry for the children and the fact they must grow up without a loving and caring mummy. The measure of what they will have to face is too distressing to think about – their own wedding and their children will never have a maternal grandmother.
“A couple of weeks ago they were chanting in the back of the car ‘we want mummy, we want mummy’ and ‘come down from heaven’ I had to drive through my tears and try and comfort them at the same time. Lola has asked many times why did this have to happen to my mummy and this is a question we can’t answer. She wants to know why it was her mummy that had to go to heaven she struggles every day. Lola’s journey is going to be difficult but Leila is going to be unimaginable the loss of her mother at the hands of her father. She has scars both physically and mentally and will do for the rest of her life. We have had to observe her flashbacks and we will have to explain why she doesn’t have a parent. Every day is difficult, grief follows us like a shadow. There’s a huge Leanne-sized hole in all of our hearts. Memories and photographs are all that’s left but any happy memories and photographs are too painful to look at.
“All she ever wanted to be was a mummy. I cry for what she went through that night. I think of how terrified she must have been, the pain she endured and I feel guilty I was not there.” Miss Collopy had attained a degree in early years teaching at Cumbria University, before getting a job at Bright Futures nursery in Crawshawbooth. She and Said began dating in 2015 and had entered into a Muslim ceremony of marriage not recognised under UK law. But they split up last year after she complained about him being possessive and violent towards her.
She later moved into a rented property with her two girls whilst he moved back in with his mother. The court heard Said couldn’t accept the romance was over and in the weeks before the killing he texted Miss Collopy saying: “I can ‘t go out, I can ‘t do anything. I just think day and night, the world is a blur, nothing matters anymore. “You have got what you wanted – my life is ruined.” On the day of the killing Said had an access visit with his daughter while Miss Collopy went out with friends. But that evening he rang her claiming she needed to come home as he had forgotten the child’s cot.Photo Credit: Getty
