AN eyewitness to a ‘brutal’ stabbing outside a Co-op told police that she thought the attacker was trying to kill his victim.

Jordan Anderson has already admitted wounding with intent in relation to the attack outside the Headington store at about 3pm on March 12 this year, as well as stalking and having an offensive weapon – a knife.

However the 30-year-old of no fixed abode denies attempted murder.

At the start of his trial at Oxford Crown Court on Wednesday prosecutors said that Anderson stabbed his victim Aleah Masih 15 times in a ‘brutal and ferocious attack.’

Read again: The first day of the trial

As the trial continued yesterday jurors heard an account from one eyewitness to the attack, Emily Smith.

She was walking close to the victim as they approached her parked car at the London Road Co-op when Anderson ‘ran’ up to Ms Masih and confronted her.

In a recorded interview she had with police, Ms Smith said of the knife attack that followed: “There was so much force in it, so much force, I didn’t think he was going to stop.

“He was doing it even though she was trying to protect herself he was still trying to do it to her face.

“He was using a lot of force, he was just yanking the knife back in, back out, and he was doing that in different places. He took it out and put it back in, took it out and put it back in.”

Asked by police what she thought Anderson’s intention was during the attack she answered: “Kill her.”

Describing the build-up to the stabbing she said that Anderson ‘was not even angry, he didn’t even seem worked up’ during the initial confrontation.

Read also: Latest court results for Oxfordshire

She said that Ms Masih appeared ‘scared’ when Anderson arrived and it was then that she – Ms Smith – asked Anderson what he was doing, telling him there were children present.

Ms Smith went on to tell police that she remembered asking Ms Masih’s daughter, who was holding her mother’s hand, if she was alright, and it was at that moment that Anderson pulled out a knife and launched the attack.

Meanwhile, jurors also heard evidence from Home Office Forensic Pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar who detailed each of the 15 individual stab wounds.

Describing the injuries he said that when judging the force of blows pathologists use three distinct indicators - mild, moderate and considerable.

He said that most wounds on the victim ‘would have required at least moderate force.’

Speaking of one wound – in which Aleah Masih's spinal cord was damaged – he said that could be considered between moderate and considerable.

Dr Kolar added that, given her loss of blood, without medical intervention Ms Masih could have died in the attack.

The trial continues.