A Holloway man who stabbed a young mother in broad daylight in front of her three-year-old son has pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to do GBH.

Islington Gazette: Christel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: SuppliedChristel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)

Ismail Musa, 26, of Tollington Road pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Court on July 19 - and he will be sentenced for his "unprovoked attack" at the same court on August 30.

Musa accosted Christel Stanfield-Bruce, who was pushing her sleeping toddler in a pram, in Caedmon Road on June 7. He asked the nursery teacher and mother of three for her phone, then knifed her in the left thigh with what "felt like a barbecue skewer" when she refused.

Christel told the Gazette a few days later she'd been "completely oblivious to the danger" and was "lucky" the blade didn't hit a major artery or slice a tendon in her leg.

The attack left Christel shocked and anxious to leave the house, but she bravely allowed the Gazette to name and picture her to show she wasn't prepared to live in fear, and to aid the appeal to catch Musa.

Islington Gazette: Christel was stabbed in the back of her left thigh in an unprovoked attack. The Gazette has pixellated this distressing image. Picture: SuppliedChristel was stabbed in the back of her left thigh in an unprovoked attack. The Gazette has pixellated this distressing image. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)

"It makes you think about knife crime," she added at the time. "And the fact there seems to be no code of conduct if a woman with a child can get attacked in the street in broad daylight."

Christel's husband Quinn, 34, was with their other two kids, aged eight and five, at a school disco when he learned she'd been attacked.

He told the Gazette at the time: "There is a young man running around London with zero qualms about stabbing a mother with no apparent motive in front of her children, how a city-wide man hunt is not in progress is beyond me." Musa was arrested on June 13 and police charged him with causing GBH with intent the next day.

The Gazette understands Christel and Quinn are both well but won't be commenting further until Musa has been jailed.

Islington Gazette: Christel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: SuppliedChristel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)

Lucy Akerele, from the CPS, said: "Musa was brazen enough to commit this offence in the early afternoon, on a woman with her young child who thankfully remained asleep due to his mother's calm approach to the attack. We hope this conviction provides some comfort to the victim."

Islington Gazette: Christel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: SuppliedChristel was stabbed outside her home while pushing her son, 3, in his buggy. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)