Person admits violent stabbing of three people inside Cambridge Indian restaurant

Matthew Nelson, who identifies as Emma, admitted all four charges in the Hamilton District Court this morning. Photo / Christine Cornege

A person has admitted stabbing three people inside a busy restaurant in Cambridge.

Matthew Richard Nelson, who identifies as Emma Nelson, reappeared in the Hamilton District Court late this morning via audio-visual link where, through her counsel Glenn Dixon, guilty pleas were entered to the four charges laid over the incident.

Nelson entered the Sahara Indian Restaurant in Leamington through a rear door about 8.35pm on May 4 this year.

The 31-year-old walked into the kitchen area and stabbed a man and a woman who were working, followed by another man - a customer - who tried to help the victims.

Court documents reveal Nelson entered the kitchen, with one arm raised and, holding a knife in their clenched fist, approached the man "in a quick and aggressive manner" before stabbing him in the left shoulder in a downwards motion.

The customer was stabbed in the right side of his abdomen and lost about a litre of blood from the wound.

The woman's injuries were deemed "severe" and included a laceration to the left side of her face and a stab wound to her upper left back which, as a result, punctured her right lung causing it to collapse and blood to flow into her chest cavity.

Despite her injuries, the female victim ran out the front doors of the restaurant and across the road to the BP service station to get help.

Meanwhile, Nelson walked out of the restaurant holding a chair, and then threw it at the front windows smashing them.

One of the victims is Nelson's ex-partner.

Dixon said his client would need further psychiatric reports completed before sentencing which was set down for November 15.

Judge Keith de Ridder convicted Nelson and remanded her in further custody until that date, however, he noted that given the pressures the mental health system was under it may need to be pushed out further.