The terrified girl was crying and covered in blood following her mother's arrest when she revealed she hadn't eaten, didn't go to school and had nowhere to live.

The girl's mother pleaded guilty in the Newcastle District Court on Thursday to charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assaulting police, reckless wounding, resisting arrest and stalking following a stabbing rampage last year.

In a police statement tendered to the court, it was revealed the woman stabbed her first victim, Andrew Nichol, after jumping in his car at Salamander Bay.

She told Mr Nichol: "I've got a knife and I'm evil."

The woman's second victim, Rohan Andrews, saw she was carrying two knives as her daughter stood behind her crying and asking "Mummy, what are you doing?"

Mr Andrews said he picked up a chair for protection before approaching the woman who said: "Are you Jesus?"

The woman lunged at him with the knife and then walked off.

Another victim, Derrick Vogtmann, was shopping at a nearby store when he heard Mr Andrews calling out from the street: "Look out, she's got two knives".

Mr Vogtmann went outside and was confronted by the woman who stabbed him twice in the back as he ran back inside the store.

Peter Ferraro was shopping in the store when he looked up to see the woman standing two metres away with blood on her face. She charged at him with the knife above her head and stabbed him in the back.

Police said CCTV footage showed the woman chasing her daughter through the store for several minutes while holding a knife.

"At one point the offender took hold of (the girl) and stabbed her to the head several times as she lay on the floor. She dragged (the girl) by the hair around the store for a short time," police said.

Mr Andrews went into the store to try to rescue the girl when she had been left alone and approached her on his knees before carrying her outside. He said the girl told her she was scared her mum was going to kill her.

Mr Andrews cuddled her and said: "It's OK. You are safe now and mum is getting help."

By this stage, police had arrived and arrested the woman after she'd punched one officer in the face.

The woman later claimed she was under the influence of synthetic cannabis and had smoked amphetamines.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8.