A WOMAN who lunged at her partner with a knife while drunk has been spared immediate prison.

Kirsty Maria Graham, 32, knocked back lager and vodka before a row with Nathan Shepherd turned to violence on May 1.

Graham, of Potts Terrace, Great Broughton, pinned Mr Shepherd on to a bed and pulled his jacket over his head before delivering repeated blows. Outside the house, she then swung a metal mug tree at him, “connecting on the third occasion”.

After going inside to get his jacket, he returned to his car. Prosecutor Mark Kellet told Carlisle Crown Court: “The defendant followed him out of the house with a knife with a four-inch blade. She said ‘I’ll sicken you, you’re not going anywhere’. At that stage she lunged at him with the knife. She didn’t make contact.”

After she stabbed a rear tyre of his vehicle, he called the police, later saying: “She just needs help. She just needs to know what she did was wrong.”

Graham, 32, admitted assaulting Mr Shepherd, threatening him with a knife and criminal damage.

The incident, Graham’s barrister Brendan Burke said, had “acted as a prompt for her to start putting her life in order”.

Graham was due to have been sentenced last month. But punishment was postponed after Judge James Adkin asked for additional background information, including medical evidence. At the resumed hearing yesterday, Judge Adkin noted mother-of-two Graham suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder. And, after considering more sensitive mitigation, the judge concluded it would be “unjust” to impose an immediate jail term.

Despite telling Graham Potts Terrace, Great Brougton, he was “sorely tempted” to lock her up, Judge Adkin suspended a four-month prison sentence for a year. He ordered her to complete 150 hours’ unpaid work and a 30-day rehabilitation requirement.”