Pregnant mum was left for dead after brutal knife attack at her home by a family friend… and her helpless husband had to watch the whole thing on FaceTime

A MUM-TO-BE who was nine months pregnant has recalled the harrowing moment she was left for dead after a frenzied knife attack in her own home - and her helpless husband had to watch the whole thing on FaceTime.

Rachel Poole, from Texas, U.S., was stabbed in the neck, the breast, face and in the bone above her left eye by family friend Corey Moss in a row over money.

Her horrified husband Justin, who served in the U.S. army and was stationed thousands of miles away, heard every scream as his wife fought back and begged her attacker not to hurt her baby.

Rachel, 34, shouted out her attacker's name, so that Justin would hear, before playing dead, hoping Moss would leave.

Despite being paralysed down her right side, she found her phone and called the police, who arrived within minutes.

Rachel was rushed to hospital and into surgery, while Justin flew home from Qatar just in time to see their baby, Isabella, born by C-section weighing 6lb 12oz.

Miraculously she was unharmed by what had happened to her mum.

Moss was arrested and in September 2014 he pleaded guilty to burglary of habitation with intent to commit a felony and was sentenced to 30 years in prison - although after 15 he can apply for parole.

Now Rachel and Justin, who is no longer in the army so that he can look after his wife, are in the process of rebuilding their lives and, against the odds, Rachel gave birth to their second child, baby Justin, in November 2015.

Rachel said: "It sounds crazy but I was so lucky when I was attacked.

"He could have cut through my stomach and killed my baby – but he didn’t and she was born healthy.

“I suffered severe injuries which left me struggling to walk, in constant pain and depressed, but I had to pull myself together and get on with my life for Isy and Justin.

“Now we have a beautiful toddler, Justin, who is the apple of all our eyes. Both my children are miracles!”

Rachel told how her first pregnancy with Isy, now three, wasn't easy.

She suffered a massive bleed and was told by doctors that she had placenta previa, where her low lying placenta partially covered her cervix.

This meant that she was considered high risk and had to go to the hospital every other week for a check-up.

But Rachel was positive that everything would work out and would talk to Justin up to five times a day on FaceTime to assure him that she and their unborn child were fine.

“We were lucky because we could talk regularly throughout the day, so Justin being so far away could have been a lot worse,” she recalled.

“It was disappointing because of course, I wanted Justin to be with me every step of my pregnancy.

“But we didn’t have a choice – Justin was in the army. We used FaceTime as often as we could – it was so important for us to see each other, so I could show Justin my growing baby bump and make him feel like he was involved.”

On November 30 in 2013, Rachel was FaceTiming Justin as she walked through the front door just after 7pm.

Earlier that day a neighbour had phoned her to say someone was snooping around her house, but Rachel dismissed it, assuming it was Moss who was due to call to give her money towards repairs on her car that he had damaged when he borrowed it.

As she walked into the kitchen, she was stabbed ferociously in her neck, breast, face and in the bone above her left eye - while Justin remained on the other end of the phone.

He heard every sickening scream and the noise of the knife plunging into his wife.

“It all happened quickly and all I could see was the shadow of the intruder,” said Justin.

“Rachel started to scream it was our friend Corey, and as he stabbed her, the phone flew from her hand to the ground.

“I could hear everything as he attacked my wife. The noises were terrifying – I knew he was trying to kill her.

"Rachel fought back as much as she could but she was powerless. He grabbed her left arm and snapped it like a twig, and then it all went quiet.”

Rachel added: “Corey stabbed and stabbed me like he was a mad man. I remember screaming, 'I’m pregnant, don’t hurt my baby!'

"Corey stabbed my nose so hard he fractured it. He stabbed the outside of my right eye, the back of my neck that caused damage to my spine, my head.

"I was absolutely helpless but inside I was praying that Justin could hear everything. But he was thousands of miles away – I was very definitely on my own."

Terrified that Moss might stab her in the stomach and kill her baby, Rachel lay motionless on the floor, pretending to be dead.

She recalled: "It seemed like I lay there for an eternity holding my breath, struggling not to move even though my body felt like it was on fire with all the stab wounds.

"Then, once I was sure he had gone, with all the strength I could muster I dragged myself to reach my phone.”

Rachel was in hospital for weeks after giving birth to Isy. She had intensive physical therapy because of the damage to her spine and to the rest of her body, where her nerves were damaged from the knife wounds.

Her arm was badly broken and she had pins and a plate put in it.

She told how her first few months of motherhood were hard as she was "aware of her limitations and felt a failure".

“I felt as if my whole life was ending," she admitted. "All because Corey felt that he shouldn’t have to pay me the money to repair my car – how stupid is that a reason to try to kill someone?”

Now Isy is thriving and each day Rachel gets stronger, but it's not easy.

"I have good and bad days," she said. "I’m registered disabled and walk with a cane.

"I am registered blind in one eye and I still have part of the knife embedded in my skull - it's too dangerous to operate to remove it. So I am stuck with a permanent reminder of the worst day of my life.

"I just want to be the best I can, and my husband and kids love me for who I am.

"They encourage me to keep my spirits up, to smile and to be positive even when I feel like the whole world is against me.

"It’s my family who has given me the will to survive. In my darkest days, I think of them and I realise that I am really the lucky one.

"As for Corey, Justin and I treated him like a family member, and this is how he repaid us.

"I hope he rots in jail and never gets parole – he doesn’t deserve to be out in the real world."

Earlier this week we told how a man was left fighting for his life after being "stabbed in a brutal machete attack" near a Glasgow car park.

Yesterday we reported how a man was subjected to an "appalling" sex attack by another man after he fell asleep on London Underground Central Line.