A woman who stabbed her partner in the thigh with a steak knife, leaving the blade embedded in his leg, has been spared an immediate prison sentence.
Courtney Bruce, 29, and her boyfriend had been in a five-year relationship and there had been no previous domestic violence issues before an isolated incident on 9th April, 2022, Carlisle Crown Court heard today.
Both Bruce and the man had been drinking before an argument broke out in the kitchen about how he had been holding their pet poodle.
Bruce was pushed to the floor and, said prosecutor Kim Whittlestone: “She picked up a steak knife and stabbed him in the left thigh.”
The blade was embedded in his leg with the handle protruding although his injury was limited to a wound which required stitches, a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
Bruce had immediately called an ambulance, made admissions at the scene and provided corroborating evidence when later taken into custody. “This was a serious but isolated incident,” said Miss Whittlestone, who told how the man had refused to support the prosecution.
Bruce admitted unlawful wounding and was said to have since given birth to a daughter. “This was something which is wholly out of character for her,” said defence lawyer, Mark Shepherd.
Bruce, of Borrowdale Road, Carlisle, had no previous criminal convictions to her name, the court heard.
After hearing submissions, mitigation and reading the contents of a detailed psychiatric report, Recorder Julian Shaw suspended an 18-month jail term for two years, ordering Bruce to also undergo intensive rehabilitation work with the probation service.
“A femoral artery is one of the points that, if breached, could have caused the death of (the man),” said Recorder Shaw. “He could have bled out on the kitchen floor. He didn’t and that’s why it is a (wounding charge) and not something far more serious where my (sentencing) hands would have been tied.”
The judge hoped it was a lesson learned, saying that “alcohol consumption can cause both a disinhibiting effect but also can give rise to utterly tragic and completely unintended consequences”.
