Blood-spattered Sheffield house woman ‘needs help’, says daughter

On Friday, police sealed off a house on Holme Lane in Hillsborough after its windows were seen to be splattered with blood from the inside.

Witnesses described the scene as ‘horrendous’ but South Yorkshire Police have not yet revealed any information about what happened.

Now, Taylor Knowles, the daughter of the woman who lives in the house, has contacted the Star to say her mum is seriously mentally unwell but isn’t getting the help she needs.

Taylor, 19, said that in recent months Michelle McGoran, 40, has attacked a paramedic, has set fire to her cellar, was seen lying down on the tram tracks and yesterday grabbed hold of a woman in the street.

She said: “I have begged and begged for help from the mental health services but every time I think she is going to get some nothing comes of it.

“I have called them 17 or 18 times this year already and I just don’t know what else to do. It is really upsetting.”

Taylor says that whenever her mum is assessed, she is always deemed to have ‘capacity’, meaning she has the right to refuse medical treatment if she wants to.

“The mental health team always say she has capacity because she can answer her name and date of birth,” said Taylor.

“But a lady who lives opposite and sees her on a daily basis has rung mental health loads of times says she has just lost it.”

Taylor said that after Friday’s events, Michelle was allowed home just hours after being taken to Northern General Hospital with a cut finger.

She says she now wants her mum to be ‘sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act, or failing that to be reassessed by the doctors who have previously only diagnosed her with anxiety.

“I live in Lowedges so I’m having to go up to mum’s after work and not getting home until 11 or 12 so it is affecting my work as well,” she added.

South Yorkshire Police have yet to comment on the incident and we will contact Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust after the Bank Holiday weekend.