Victoria Hopkins had just spent the day in hospital with her father when she got a phone call which turned her life upside down.

She was told her son, Morgan, had been stabbed by a stranger, and was now in the same ward she had just left.

The 18-year-old had been on a night out with his girlfriend and another couple when he was stabbed 10 times in an unprovoked attack, leaving him with nerve damage and a severed bowel leading to 10 hours of surgery the next day.

On Friday, Kane Evans from Gorseinon, Swansea, was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years for the attack on Morgan Hopkins.

Evans, aged 20 at the time of the attack, had an earlier altercation with people in a car outside the New Lodge social club in Gorseinon, and went on to stab Morgan.

Morgan had tried to intervene and calm the situation, but was attacked by Evans with a knife in the early hours of 22 June 2025.

At Swansea Crown Court on Friday, Judge Paul Thomas KC described the attack as “murderous, ferocious and persistent”.

Speaking ahead of the sentencing, Ms Hopkins said she was grateful to have a healthy son this Christmas after the “horror story” that unfolded earlier this year.

She remembered thinking “this isn’t even happening” after she got home and received the call about Morgan.

She said that when she first saw Morgan he kept repeating “I didn’t do anything wrong, Mam”.

Ms Hopkins said she thought her son “must have done something”, as she struggled to understand why someone would stab him 10 times in an unprovoked attack.

“Not that I blamed him, but I just wanted a reason why someone would do that to somebody for no reason,” she said.

Evans’ sentencing hearing heard Morgan had tried to calm a confrontation involving Evans, who was pulling a passenger out of a car who had asked Evans what he was looking at.

A couple of hours later, Morgan was sitting outside the social club waiting for a lift when Evans approached him with a kitchen knife.

The prosecution said Morgan tried to reason with him and told him “no one needs to get hurt”, but Evans launched a “frenzied and unprovoked attack” on Morgan and stabbed him 10 times.

CCTV was played to the court showing Morgan running away from Evans and inside to the social club to get help.

Evans then said to his partner “he’s lucky that’s all he got”.

The court also heard a witness impact statement from Morgan’s father who said: “He’d dreamed of being a professional rugby player but this has been a massive setback.

“I don’t know if [I’ll] be able to put this behind because I’ve never been so petrified in my life.”

Doctors discovered Morgan had a severed bowel and had developed sepsis.

“It just went from bad to worse,” said Ms Hopkins, adding that part of her son’s bowel also had to be removed.

Morgan’s wounds were deep – with the knife severing 50% of his tendons and his nerves in his arm, his triceps and his bicep.

Six months on, Ms Hopkins said her son – a keen rugby player – has “dealt with it absolutely amazingly” but still lives with physical injuries like nerve damage.

“His world was rugby, and obviously he’s not playing, and I can see that change in him,” she said.

While unable to play, Morgan has instead taken up coaching, something Ms Hopkins said made her “proud”.

Reflecting on Kane Evans’ actions, Mrs Hopkins said: “I thought I’d feel angry, but I just don’t. I don’t feel anything. I just think he’s ruined his own life.”

She added: “I just feel for his family because they’re victims as well, and I just feel gutted for them because they’ve got to go without their son now for however many years.”

She said that this Christmas she is just glad to be buying her son gifts, instead of mourning him.

“I’m just so grateful that it’s not the worst outcome,” she said.

Evans was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison and five years on licence after his release.

Nia Sturgess from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a sustained and brutal attack which caused terrible injuries.

“All too often, violence involving knives can have fatal consequences.

“Thankfully, that was not the case here, and we hope Mr Hopkins makes a full recovery,” she added.