Mum-of-two revealed as victim of Queensland Coles supermarket stabbing

The Coles employee allegedly stabbed by a 13-year-old boy at a Coles supermarket in Queensland on Monday has been identified as Claudia Campomayor Watt.

The 63-year-old mother-of-two was critically injured in the incident about 5.25pm on Monday at the Yamanto Central Shopping Centre on Warwick Rd, Yomanto in Ipswich, west of Brisbane..

She remains in a critical but stable condition after being rushed to Princess Alexander Hospital following the alleged attack during which the knife emerged from the other side of her abdomen when it was plunged into her.

Watt’s family told 7NEWS it was a “miracle” she survived the ordeal.

“She is in pain but recovering well — I have no doubt God is watching over her,” the family said in a statement to 7NEWS.

Coles has since pulled knives from sale in its stores nationwide.

“Coles complies with all legislation regarding the sale of kitchen knives, and this withdrawal is being taken out of an abundance of caution as we conduct a review,” it said in a statement.

“The safety of our team members and customers is our number one priority across all aspects of our business.”

They said SMEG kitchen knives would remain available to buy at the supermarket’s service desk until January 21.

On Thursday, Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association Queensland secretary Justin Power appeared on Sunrise, where he was quizzed by David Woiwod about the move.

“Off the top here, is pulling knives off the shelves a good idea?” Woiwod asked Power.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s an overreaction — I think it’s an understandable reaction,” Power said.

“I believe that it’s the case that Coles has taken this opportunity to review the packaging and the way that the knives are presented in the store to make sure that they are safer and less likely to be used in this kind of random attack again in the future.”

Power said putting the knives behind a service desk limited the public’s access to them.

“These kitchen knives are clearly critical to families being able to provide dinner for their family, for utility purposes but there is very little difference between them and a knife which is designed to harm somebody,” Power explained.

“I do not think it’s unreasonable moving forward that the knives are stored, packaged and looked after in such a way that they are not able to just be picked off the shelf and used immediately.”

Power said the latest SDA report, No One Deserves a Serve, revealed a rapid rise in physical assaults on retail employees.

“It seems to be some kind of social change. We’ve done surveying of our members over a number of years now as part of our No One Deserves a Serve campaign,” he said.

“We know that physical abuse has increased over the last number of years and in 2021 our survey said 8 per cent of respondents had suffered physical abuse in their workplace from customers.

“In 2023, that had increased to 12.5 per cent. Clearly there is a social shift. It’s unacceptable and seems to be getting worse.”