Michael Ormandy told the pub barmaid he ‘was going to Liverpool to sort something out’ after meeting her at a hotel
Michael Ormandy
A dad accused of murdering his girlfriend had sex with another woman hours earlier then told her he “was going to Liverpool to sort something out”. Rebekah Campbell died after being stabbed 18 times during a “sustained and violent assault” inside her own home at Knowsley Heights in Huyton on April 15 this year.
The gravely injured 32-year-old told neighbours who came to her aid “my fella stabbed me” before ultimately collapsing outside the block of flats where she lived, her clothes heavily stained with blood. She then asked a police officer “am I gonna die?” as she was rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
Her partner Michael Ormandy is currently on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of her murder. But he denies this charge, claiming to have acted in self-defence during the incident.
The 34-year-old, of Linacre Road in Litherland, was arrested on canal towpath mere minutes after Ms Campbell’s death, having apparently thrown his mobile phone into the water. Referring to a series of violent rows between the couple during a night out in Liverpool city centre three days earlier, he told PCs at this stage: “This wouldn’t have happened if you did your job last week.”
Junior prosecution counsel Henry Riding read a statement on behalf of a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to the jury this afternoon, Tuesday. She described how she met originally met Ormandy at the pub in Southport where she worked around October 2024, at which stage the two exchanged phone numbers.
The woman said: “We got on well. We didn’t text every day, but spoke about previous relationships. From October to January, I didn’t see Michael. We would go weeks without texting each other.
“Some time in the new year, Michael told me he had a new girlfriend. He seemed happy. He told me she did beauty treatments and lashes. Michael only came into the pub twice since Christmas. Once, he was only passing through. We didn’t really speak. Most of the conversations we had were on WhatsApp.”
The witness recalled that Ormandy then texted her on April 13, 2025 and “asked if she wanted to meet him in Liverpool”, although she declined as she was “too tired” due to work and was looking after her children. He then messaged her again on April 15, leading to her attending his room at the Prince of Wales Hotel in the town that afternoon.
She said of this: “I went into his room. We chatted for a short time. I had a vodka and orange. We slept together and had intercourse. He said he was going to see his kids at his mum’s. I left, went home then went to work.
“Michael came into the pub. He asked me if I was alright. I did not see him leave. He texted me to say he was going to Liverpool to sort something out. He didn’t say what it was.”
The woman stated that she had then texted Ormandy “did you go back?”, referring to the hotel, the following morning, but received no reply. Her statement continued: “Over the following days, I saw on the Liverpool ECHO that a girl had been killed. I was shocked, as this was the same girl Michael had shown me a photo of earlier in the year. I felt sick and then learned that Michael had been charged with her murder.”
CCTV footage which was then played to the court showed Ormandy checking into the hotel at 1pm that day before the woman arrived at 3pm. The two subsequently left together shortly after 4.30pm, being seen sharing a kiss outside then going their separate ways, with the defendant thereafter seen returning in a taxi at 7pm.
David McLachlan KC told a jury of nine men and three women during the prosecution’s opening on Monday that Ms Campbell was at home at her flat on the evening of April 15, 2025 when Ormandy attended the address. Faye Henderson, who was speaking to the deceased on the phone at this 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 leaving the building again as Ms Campbell exited her apartment shouting “I’ve been stabbed”. Having collapsed outside, she thereafter told neighbours who rushed to her aid: “My fella stabbed me.”
While later being transported to Aintree Hospital in 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.
Rebekah Campbell (Image: Merseyside Police/Family handout )
The incident was said to have come against the backdrop of a relationship which “wasn’t going well”, with Ms Campbell said to have been “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 near to Beer Engine on Hardman Street, with the deceased seen “kicking out” at Ormandy before he struck her to the face. She was said to have been left in tears after falling to the floor and suffering a black eye as a result of this blow.
Following his arrest on a canal towpath, Ormandy was reported to have told PCs “this wouldn’t have happened if you did your job last week”. A mobile phone was subsequently recovered from the water after Ormandy had apparently “tried to ditch” the device.
Under interview, Ormandy said of the incident on April 12 that “everyone was drunk, but Rebekah was more out of control than the others” and recalled that she “had slapped him across the face”. He said that he had then “struck out in self defence” when she attacked him for a second time.
Of the night of Ms Campbell’s death, he stated that she had “immediately” screamed “I’ve got a knife” when he had entered the property and claimed he had seen such a weapon in her right hand. Having apparently attempted to disarm her, he went on to detail how his girlfriend “remained on top of him and was attacking him” and that he “responded by punching her to her body in self-defence” before he was “able to push her on to the couch”.
A Home Office postmortem investigation subsequently revealed that Ms Campbell had 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”.
Ormandy, who is represented by Nick Johnson KC and Daniel Travers, denies one count of murder. The trial, before the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC, continues.